To a Different World with the Red Star – Series Info
Author:凜乃 初
RAW: http://ncode.syosetu.com/n6147be/
Urushi Touka’s overwhelming power is just too much for his day to day life.
RAW: http://ncode.syosetu.com/n6147be/
Urushi Touka’s overwhelming power is just too much for his day to day life.
Touka was on his way home from school, when he ends up using his power to save a child, causing him to destroy an oncoming truck with his fist.
Seeing that, god decided that his power was too abnormal and called him over.
It was there, that Touka found out the reason behind his power.
According to god, the power he has is too much for this world, and mentioned that it would be possible to send him over to a different world.
With two replies he gave his OK. Here begins Touka’s life in a different world!
Tags: R15, Cruel Depiction, Other World, Overpowered Protagonist, Magic, Other World Transfer, Male Protagonist
Chapters: 151 (Complete)
Translation Schedule: Once a week
TL Note: Read ahead a bit on the other one, and apparently I do not enjoy SF. Yeah, so I’ll just go with this one for my side project. Yes, that means I won’t be translating the emperor thing anymore.
Anyways, if you guys like op protagonists that beat the living crap out of stuff and amaze people then you’ll like this. He’s no chufeng… but I guess he’s close enough. kinda…
The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 24 1/2
Tl Note: This chapter was split into two parts due to length. The next chapter contains the whole length, just go there. I left this version here, so people can read the comments or experience the split version if they want.
After declaring that he’ll be accepting the duel, Ryouma made a rod with his short sword by cutting off and shaving a moderately sized branch of a nearby tree. The adventurers surrounding him, gave a sidelong glance as they whispered amongst themselves.
These kinds of squabbles are fairly common amongst the adventurers. Well, for it to reach to the point where it turns into a duel is pretty rare, but fist fights do happen a lot. So with that in mind the adventurers basically didn’t try to stop the fight.
Because adventurers put their lives on the line for their job, the ability to be able to judge the strength of their opponent in comparison to theirs is very important. Even if one were to end up badly hurt after picking a fight with someone stronger, the one at fault is the person who couldn’t properly gauge his opponent’s strength. This is true even if it’s not a quarrel between two adventurers and is a job. If you take a request that you can’t handle, if you fail, then you’ll lose your life.
Normal people would fail that once or twice, after which they’d understand their limits. But even then, there have been hardly any deaths when it comes to arguments between adventurers. Even if an adventurer was known for his bad deeds, he would still remember the days when he too was inexperienced and will keep himself from going overboard.
That’s why, other adventurers won’t do anything else aside from spectating. Unless the members of the Fang of Orbtem really try to kill Ryouma, or injure him in such a way that it will leave irreversible injuries, they won’t do anything.
These people are the same, believing that Ryouma is a novice that picked a fight with an opponent he cannot win against, and plan to leave them alone for it to serve as a lesson for him, going in only to help when his life is in danger.
However, not all the adventurers are just there to watch over them.
There are also people that are cheering. For example, the group of Wereanna who had just finished eating and had come back.
Since they can’t fight, they decided to at least throw Ryouma words of encouragement.
After that, Wereanna asked Ryouma,
“Ryouma, why did you accept the duel when you didn’t even say anything to the six in the cave?”
“Those guys were also annoying but these guys are wearing armor so it won’t end that badly for them. I wanted to settle it by talking, but that doesn’t seem to possible right now… and also…”
“And also?”
“Actually, there’s also that urge to let loose, you know? I believe I’ve talked about this a little while ago with you guys, but I haven’t actually fought a lot. I’ve always remained defenseless except for situations where I’ve decided that my life is in danger.
And even if I were to resist, it would be as self-defense. Without killing my opponent and dedicating myself to running away, and no matter what fighting only when it’s not possible to run away. That is my way of living. Because I had to do that, that’s why. But, right now is different.
I thought I’d try to choose how to live my own life. So I thought that I’d like to use the skills I’ve trained in my life, and resist unreasonably for once. That’s why those kind of guys are really convenient. Not only are they wearing armor, they have also been trained. If it’s like that then they won’t end up too hurt.”
“Ryouma-kun…”
“Ryouma. I can’t stop you guys, but be careful.”
“We’re ready!”
Having talked up to that point, the place where they were going to duel was finally prepared, and so they called Ryouma. Ryouma took the rod he made out of a tree, and went to duel. Seeing that, the six members of the Fang of Orbtem and the surrounding adventurers couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hey, hey, hey, what is that piece of wood?”
“How funny, it’s perfect for an F rank!”
“I’m just holding my weapon, isn’t it fine?”
As he said that, the adventurers of the Fang of Orbtem laughed even harder.
“Hey brat! Are you seriously thinking of picking a fight with us with that?”
“That’s right. I’m not good at holding back, if I use a weapon with a blade attached I might accidentally kill you.”
At those words, the surrounding voices quieted down, and the faces of the adventurers of the Fang of Orbtem flushed deep red.
“You looking down on us bitch?”
“I am not looking down on you. I have taken into consideration your ability as well as mine, and have decided that this is for the best.”
“You fucking brat! I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you!!”
At those words the other adventurers also raised their voices. Right after that, Wogan, who took the role of the referee, gave the signal to start, and two of the men came rushing at Ryouma.
Ryouma quickly swung the rod he was holding up, hitting the pommel of the sword the man swung down with his right hand and repelling it. He then took a half step and hit the solar plexus of the man with the opposite side of the rod.
As if he was flowing, he kept moving and swept the rod to his left, hitting the grip of the man to his left. Returning the rod, he hit the wrist, and with the kote, a gauntlet used in kendo, he slapped down the sword, and thrust the man’s throat.
Having lost the grip on their sword, and receiving a blow to the pit of their stomach and to their throat, the two men gave a painful moan as they backed off. At that opening, Ryouma rushed in, and quickly hit the chin of the two with his rod, giving the two a cerebral concussion and knocking them out. As the sound of the swords hitting the ground echoed, the two men fell to the ground.
The onlookers believed that Ryouma didn’t have the ability to win against the six people in front of him. And even if he had fought only one, he still wouldn’t be able to win, in the end the six would have just made a sport of him. But seeing the scene unfolding right before them, they couldn’t help but tremble as they were left speechless.
The 6 people before Ryouma were the same. Failing to understand the sight of two men falling into the ground, the four remaining members completely forgot to move.
“Hey! The four over there, you coming?”
“Che!”
At those words, one of the men clicked his tongue, wielded his axe and jumped at Ryouma.
The axe came falling down at Ryouma’s head. Seeing that, he spun his body, and as he did so he hit the side of the axe with the rod, moving its trajectory, and allowing him to dodge. Continuing that, he moved the rod that had just hit the side of the axe and thrust it into the man’s throat. As he took control of his spinning body, he turned the rod and used the tip that had just plunged into the man’s throat to hit the chin. Doing so he sent another man into a cerebral concussion, putting the number of men down at three.
When the three remaining men saw that, one of them put his sword back into the scabbard and walked out. What was he planning? Is he giving up? No. The man that has now become unarmed, plans to take Ryouma’s rod. Once he has taken control of Ryouma’s rod, the two behind him will make their move and attack with their spear and knife.
The man succeeded at grabbing Ryouma’s rod. At that moment he believed that Ryouma has now been pushed into a corner.
“Ha!!”
However, in the next instant, Ryouma poured out his fighting spirit as he thrust his rod into the man while the man was still holding it. As the man was thrust away, he let go of Ryouma’s rod, and came crashing at the two men behind him.
Because of that the man ended up receiving the knife of the man behind him, and the man that had a spear had to dodge the man, causing him to stagger and show a huge opening. Ryouma did not miss that opening. He quickly took his rod, and hit the man’s head to knock him out.
When the man with a knife saw that his comrade that held a spear has been knocked out, and the unarmed man was beside him squatting as he held his stomach, he clearly became panicked. To such a man, Ryouma leisurely walked closer.
They all thought that they had the advantage, everyone did. However when the battle had begun, Ryouma one-sidedly trashed the other five. Unable to come to grips with the reality before him, the man couldn’t accept their loss.
The man frantically held his knife and rushed at Ryouma, but such a thing wouldn’t work. Ryouma quickly swung his rod diagonally from his right below going up to the left, and knocking down the knife. Continuing that, he swept against the man’s leg with the rod, hit the head when the man fell, and thrust at the throat.
“Uwaaaaaaaa!!!! Aga!”
These men kept spitting insults at Ryouma, yet this men’s abilities were no better than an amateur’s. These guys were the kind that would pick on people weaker than them or around their level, and would only overpower them by their number.
Since from the start these men didn’t have any guts to fight people stronger than them. When they see that there’s a difference in power, they will immediately withdraw, and without any hesitation surrender like this.
“I, I give up! I’m surrendering!”
“Winner! Ryouma Takebayashi!”
“Wahoooooo!”
At Wogan’s declaration, the surrounding onlookers all cheered for Ryouma. The eyes and the comments that were around when they thought Ryouma was someone who didn’t know his own limits had all disappeared, and now the crowd unanimously admired Ryouma.
A man came out from the ring of onlookers with a double-edged axe on his back. As he moved closer to Ryouma, the crowd grew quiet.
“Not bad. For a brat. I’m the leader of the Fang of Orbtem, Sacchi. What do you think? How ‘bout joining us?”
“I refuse.”
It was a sudden invitation, but Ryouma gave a prompt reply.
“You’re refusing my invitation?”
“There’s no way I’d want to suddenly become the comrade of a bunch of guys who were looking down on me just a while ago.”
“Well, that’s true. But you see… we need to do something about the fact that you sullied our name.”
“Wait!”
At Sacchi’s words, Wogan put himself in between the two.
“The one who proposed this duel was your men. It’s unreasonable to say that just because you lost.”
“Unreasonable? That kind of thing doesn’t matter. The problem is that what belongs to me just lost to this brat. You also understand, right? Just how important this thing called ‘face’ in this job is. An adventurer with good reputation will find a lot of jobs, and a poor reputation will find few. And for an adventurer, the worst kind of rumor, is the rumor of being weak. A weak adventurer can’t do jobs, that’s what it means to be an adventurer. To an adventurer like that, jobs won’t come.”
As he said that, Sacchi looked at the six men on the ground and then declared this,
“From now on you bastards aren’t allowed to use the name, Fang of Orbtem! You’re fired!”
“W–wait Sacchi-san, please wait!”
“Shut up!! To think you would actually, in front of all people, lose to this brat! I don’t need weak bitches like you in my team! Right now I really want to kill you fuckers! If you’re going to surrender then you might as well die!”
At those words, Ryouma remembered something from the past. Sacchi’s words right now were similar to the behavior of an authority in the company that his deceased mother had insulted. Realizing that, an unspeakable displeasure crawled through Ryouma’s body. It’s not like Sacchi hasn’t done anything to Ryouma. If I must say it then right now Sacchi is trying to find fault with Ryouma. But, that’s just it. Between the two of them, that’s all there is.
However, right now, Ryouma has the urge to thoroughly tear Sacchi apart. The reason for that is the repugnance and hate that he had continuously piled up for the authorities and the company employees in his past life that he had forgotten since coming here. But of course, Sacchi had nothing to do with that. Understanding that, Ryouma kept his urge. But that was extremely unpleasant.
Furthermore, Ryouma is as calm as he can understand the difference in ability between them. However, what that means is that even if Sacchi were to attack with all the members of the Fang of Orbtem, he would deal with them without question. And that prediction was correct.
Although the members of the Fang of Orbtem are D Rank up, that is not because of their own individual strengths but because of their number and the quality of their equipment. The only ones that actually have ability are Sacchi and several of the cornerstones of the Fang of Orbtem. Moreover those people are Rank C. If Ryouma were to seriously go at it, he would be able to deal with them easily. To put it bluntly, there isn’t a single factor for Ryouma’s defeat.
However, strangely enough, it was that calm judgement that became one of the factors that loosened Ryouma’s bound of reason. If the one here right now was someone that he absolutely could not win against, then he would have made a decision to withdraw. Even if it was only dangerous and he could actually win, he would still make the decision to put up his guard and try to avoid fighting.
But, Ryouma can win. Easily too. Because of that all thoughts of running away ceased. Right now, just keeping himself from picking a fight with this man has already pushed his reason to its brink.
And in that brink, Sacchi’s words reached him and… it broke his last sense of reason.
“If you just hand that brat over to us we can settle everything peacefully. It’s better even for that brat’s sake, right? I heard it you know? That brat is being raised by some noble. From now on he’s going to be kept until he dies, and if the nobles get tired of him they’ll just throw him away. If he does something poorly, won’t they just throw him away? Rather than being treated like a tool by some noble, it’s better for him to go with us and live more freely…”
“Shut up.”
TL Note: So proud of myself
Emperor of the Galaxy – Prologue 1
TL Note: This is actually quite difficult to translate… I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry knowing that I actually finished this.
Changed Braubelk to Breuberg as per lygartranslations’ suggestions (ブラウベルク )
Prologue
The human race’s embark to space was earlier than expected. The ground breaking progress of the technology of computers was put to practical use in spaceships. Because of this the development of space technology greatly sped up.
First, the humans developed the moon. And as expected, it was a treasure trove of resources, which greatly changed the problem of energy. It was no longer a problem of exhausting resources. It was now a problem of scrambling for it. With this came the interest of mankind, as well as the struggle for survival.
Among others, the antagonism of America, China, Japan, the Pacific Rim Nations, and Europe became steep. The Pacific Rim Countries requested a significant portion under the pretense of their huge population. But since Europe had already requested the rights for control beforehand, neither of them yielded.
The ones who tried to mediate this, were Russia and India. They went over to the Pacific and mediated in order to gain an advantage. Europe showed great displeasure at this, but because of the overwhelming power of the Pacific and because they were able to secure their own share, they withdrew. This mediation was called the Singapore Treaty.
Since of all things this treaty was signed within the headquarters of the Pacific Rim Nations, it was possible to guess what the true nature of this treaty was. Moreover, this treaty had great influence over the expansion of humanity into space.
Because of the advantage given by this treaty to the Pacific, Russia gained strong influence within the Pacific Rim Nations. Until then, Russia had a slightly weaker position compared to the three countries, Japan, America, and China. But then Russia ended up becoming responsible for mediating between these three countries.
This also had the support of Japan and the ASEAN who was wary of the despotism of America and China. Also, for Japan, Russia was a troublesome issue but after they had settled the Northern Territories Issue
(http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/russia/territory/overview.html) they were able to fix their relationship. And as for Russia, something like the Northern Territories was no longer a big deal since they were already entering an era of space expansion.
Central and South America also joined into this. As for the leading powers of the oceanic countries, Australia and New Zealand, they were already important members of the Pacific Rim Countries, so they had no issues. Korea, Mongolia, Mexico and the Caribbean Countries also joined. After that, the surrounding countries of Russia and a member of EU, Turkey, also joined. They used the overwhelming power and population in order to proactively propagate the expansion to space. But there were also many who had already known much about the know-hows of space expansion.
India didn’t join them. It may be that it was because of their culture that they weren’t able to get along with Russia or the Pacific Rim Countries, and instead chose to walk on a path by themselves. But because they were also unable to get along with America and China, until today they have been estranged.
However, because of their cordial relationship with Japan, they were able to use Japan’s technology to expand to space. An act at which Europe was vexed. Because they were beaten at acquiring the resources in the moon, they were greatly delayed despite having the manpower and the technology. To begin with even if you have the technology, one can still end up behind. And just like that, in the end they were left behind by the Pacific Rim Countries. With the vestiges of the former EU nowhere to be found, it was believed that Europe had once again become content with the borders of the human world.
It was at that moment, however, that fortune paid them a visit. The birth of a new leader, Heinrich Von Breuberg. A man born in Austria and has the lineage of a duke. This man went from the European Parliament’s number one opposition party, the Progressive Political Party, to being a diet member candidate of the European Parliament. With his tall stature, bountiful blonde hair, those blue resolute eyes, and a face that looked like a sculpture from Greece, this young, 25 year old man, managed to charm the people of Europe with his speech.
Before entering the parliament, he first gave the world famous Easter speech. At the same time, the European Parliament began the Easter Festival. During which, they reinstated Greece’s and Scandinavia’s different gods and fused them with the Catholics and propagated it. Although the reinstatement of the old gods was seen at the 19th century, in order for that to become a reality it still took several hundred years. This speech gave a closure to the state of affairs and ignited the fire of the Europeans. The Progressive Political Party also gave their approval and he immediately became the young leader of that political party.Breuberg announced policies one after another. The proactive expansion to space, the protection of the engineers and the scientists, and the protection of the rights of the laborers. All of these things were entwined with the expansion to space.
He also immediately gained influence within the governing party. They then left the party and merged with the opposition. Because of this the power balance in the Parliament changed, causing the Parliament to be dissolved. Putting this together along with the election, the Progressive Political Party had an overwhelming victory and Heinrich Von Breuberg became the chairman of the European Parliament, or the leader of Europe.
He proceeded with his own policies, and through this he was able to restore the power of Europe. And Europe was also able to go into space.
There were also those who did not look favorably upon this effort. The Pacific Rim Countries for one. And among others, countries such as America, China, and Russia was greatly displeased.
In their displeasure, they sent out assassins, only to fail. And what’s worse is that their behaviors were put to light. These three countries’ intelligence agency received harsh criticism, and their reputation greatly fell.
With this they had no choice but to stay meek for a while, and during this period, Europe vigorously pursued its expansion to space. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do anything. The assassination incident that was brought to light, caused the Anti-European diehards in the Pacific Parliament to be replaced by the moderates. These moderates, however, also considered Breuberg to be someone that cannot be ignored.
However they didn’t expect any results even from the economic sanction because Europe had already managed to get a strong footing in its economy and has even managed to get the resources it needs.
They contracted the Singapore Treaty. Because of that they were able to monopolize a good part of the expansion to space. Even if they were try to cause a war, they couldn’t expect support for that because it everyone knows that the one who made the first move was them. Moreover, the Pacific Countries also had a problem with the other countries.
The peculiarity they had was that they had many countries participating. However, that actually became a disadvantage to them. Because they didn’t have someone who could lead them.
The four countries, Japan, America, China, and Russia, are its leader. However between those leaders, there were plenty of disagreements. And what’s worse is that other countries also participated. In any case, the point is that it was very difficult to progress with any conversation.
This was a clash of interest. And because they were not unified, they were not able to take a resolute position against Europe.
That is something that Breuberg himself acknowledged. He said, “When there are too many boatmen, the boat will not move.” To actually have taken out a Chinese proverb, he was a first rate cynic with a wealth of words.
Regardless though, the power difference was left unchanged. He too also believed that something needed to be done about the Singapore Treaty. And desperately needing to do that something, the only card left to play was war. However, that was not something he could afford to do. If a war were to occur, the opponent would definitely unify. In that instance, the one who would lose would be his side. And so he instead strengthened the influence of Europe.
Emperor of the Galaxy – Series Info
Emperor of the Galaxy (星河の覇皇)
1000 years later in the wide galaxy, amongst the four civilizations, the human race is currently in turmoil. In these conflicted times within the many stars, the heroes appear. Will these heroes change the galaxy with their hands? This is a tale about these heroes and the stars around them.
Author: 坂田火魯志
Chapters: 5307
Tags: World, SF, War, Politics, Armada, Serious, Humans, Battle, State/Nation, High Tech, Military History, Army, Nobles, Future, Space
Chapters: 5307
Tags: World, SF, War, Politics, Armada, Serious, Humans, Battle, State/Nation, High Tech, Military History, Army, Nobles, Future, Space
RAW: http://www.akatsuki-novels.com/stories/index/novel_id~2795
TL Note: I’ve been looking for something less light-hearted to TL for a while now. I haven’t read this yet, so I might translate a few chapters then see what to do. Oh, and I did google around to see if anyone else was TL’ing this, but apparently no one was. So yeah, let’s see where this goes.
The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 23
Break Time
Ryouma was eating by himself in a corner where the adventurers were gathered after he received his portion of lunch.
As for Jeff-san and the others, they went with the other adventurers to exchange information while eating, but since Ryouma didn’t know what to talk about with other adventurers, he was by himself.
“Even though I can talk normally now, it’s not like my fear of strangers has been cured… oh yeah, now that I think about it I did keep my conversation with other people to a minimum… it was normal for me to wait until someone talked to me…
As Ryouma dropped his head to his own cowardice, a group of men came over and spoke to him.
“Hey.”
“Eh? Ah, yes, is something the matter?”
Although Ryouma felt the men come close to him, he didn’t expect them to actually talk to him, so his response ended up being late.
“You’re wearing a pretty nice armor, huh?”
“My armor? Well, yeah, it was quite expensive.”
“Wow, bastards with money really have it nice.”
“Won’t you give some of that to us?”
At the start, Ryouma responded normally. But with those two comments, Ryouma finally realized that these adventurers were up to no good.
Adventurers would normally make a party of up to six and move as such. In the instance where they have to fight a lot of monsters or a particularly powerful prey, then they would gather more members and become an even bigger group. That kind of group normally disperses as soon as the job is over, but there are some rare instances where adventurers who worked in the same town would work together for a long time.
These people belong to that kind of group. The members of the adventurer group who calls themselves, The Fang of Orbtem, are famous in the Town of Gimuru. Not because they’re strong, but because of their bad deeds.
When they find beginner adventurers and lower level adventurers with plenty of money, they do things like what they’re doing right now, and try to extort money and equipment. There are plenty of beginner adventurers who give up their money after being threatened because of the difference in numbers. And even if they were to fight back, because there’s simply too many, they still end up being stolen from.
Right now, the prey of this group is the lonely adventurer who has no friends beside him, eating food by himself. When they saw this weak looking adventurer, well they just couldn’t help themselves. And so, they planned to do their usual stuff, but…
“Sigh… extortion… I thought there were people who finally came to talk to me, but it turned out to be extortion…”
Muttered Ryouma as he sighed disappointedly.
For Ryouma, being caught up with people like this was an everyday occurrence for him in his student days. Because of that, he didn’t feel anything anymore in situations like this.
Seeing the Ryouma who was acting boldly and sighing, the six faltered a bit. That’s because it’s normal for people to resist. Well, at the very least that’s how it was for the adventurers they’ve extorted from until now.
“That’s cruel, man. This isn’t extortion, we’re just…”
“You said you wanted money right? I won’t give you any, you know? Please work honestly and make money for yourselves.”
Ryouma has always been entangled with people like this during his school days. But amongst those countless times he was being harassed, not once did he give money to them.
There were many who would give their money and live peacefully, but Ryouma didn’t give in to extortion. He could have beaten them up, but because he was forbidden by his father to fight, he lived his days irritating the bullies and being hit.
Because of his bad habit from those days, Ryouma also acted rude in response to the six people. And as one would expect, they were enraged and started trying to threaten Ryouma. The voices of the six people reached even the ears of the surrounding adventurers, catching their attention.
“You have some guts, don’t ya…? Don’t screw with me you shitty brat!! You think I don’t know? The only job you’ve taken till now is a measly cleaning job! A brat like you who doesn’t know how to fight only needs to do what he’s told!”
“Don’t bloody get cocky just cuz you bought some nice armor!! You’re just a little brat who can’t do anything but loiter around in a weird outfit!”
“I’m telling you to just hand over the damned cash! You want to make this difficult?”
“You went against us, so leave your armor and your weapons!”
“It’s better than getting hurt ya know?”
“What, can’t you hear me!?”
“I am able to hear you just fine even without you shouting. Or are you perhaps unable to hear? In any case, I will not be handing any money to you people. Nor will I hand my weapons and armor.”
As he said that, he went back to eating his meal. Seeing that, the six people took out their swords. As expected, Ryouma was alarmed and he steeled himself for battle.
Ryouma generally didn’t fight back in his previous life, but there were exceptions. That exception being when his life was in danger. In cases like that, Ryouma fought back. As for why he would only fight when his life was in danger, that’s because he was bad at holding back.
Even if he was forbidden by his father to fight, he was still given permission to defend himself. Only, the difference between his strength and his opponents were too much. So if Ryouma were to try to fight back, it would only end up as excessive self-defense. The techniques Ryouma had learned from his father were meant to efficiently destroy one’s opponents. And those techniques were ingrained into him by his father’s strict training.
When he fought back during his school days, even the person who suffered light injuries had the hand he was holding a weapon with broken. That was the best Ryouma could do to hold back in his student days.
This also means that in situations where Ryouma’s life isn’t in danger, he won’t fight back.
But this time, his opponents tried to take out their swords. If he were to be hit by those swords, his life would be in danger. Ryouma is the kind of man who wouldn’t hesitate in a situation where his life was in danger.
While Ryouma had his guard up, and as the men tried to take out their swords, someone called out to them.
“What are you guys doing!!?”
That voice came from the man standing in the middle of the onlookers surrounding them from a distance.
The guild master of the Adventurer’s Guild, Wogan.
Wogan glared at the six guys as he walked over to Ryouma.
“You guys, I can still let you off if you’re only arguing, but I won’t approve of you taking your swords out.”
“Why is the guild master…?”
“Withdraw!”
“Even if it’s break time, we’re still in the middle of a job. So stop fighting with your fellow adventurers!”
“Fight? There’s nothin’ like that. We’re just teachin’ this brat a lesson.”
“Cuz this kid don’t have a single inkling of respect towards his senpai adventurer.”
As the two men brazenly said that it was education, Ryouma said this while he was eating.
“You can’t call extorting money, then getting mad when refused and trying to threaten me to get my armor and weapon, ‘education’, you know?”
At those words, four of the men were startled and two of them stared at Ryouma with resentful eyes. Naturally, having something like that said while the guild master was around was bad.
Of course, Wogan responded to those words,
“Certainly, that isn’t education. What’s the meaning of this?”
“Hey, hey. It’d be problematic if you misunderstood us… what we were trying to do was for you…”
“Exactly how is trying to take my money, armor, and weapons, for my sake?”
“You bastard! Stop trying to slander us!!”
“I’ll kill you you little brat!”
The previously calm four, started to shout angrily at the few calm words Ryouma spoke. And then,
“Duel me!”
Ryouma thought he had heard wrong at those sudden words and asked,
“What did you say?”
“I said to duel me you brat!”
“Why?”
“Because you falsely accused us is why!!”
“If you lose you have to give us your money, armor, and weapons!”
“Consider it payment for the class, brat. Because we’ll be teachin you exactly how cruel adventurers are.”
Ryouma opened his eyes, shocked. And then after his shocked had lessened, he said what he thought,
“This is the first time I’ve seen someone ask for a duel.”
Those words that didn’t carry a hint of tension caused the six to become irritated.
“Who cares about something like that!?”
“Are you going to accept?! Accept or not, which is it!?”
“There’s no way I would accept something like that, right? Trying to justify your crimes is meaningless, you know?”
“You scared, you brat?”
“This coward!”
“You’re pathetic!!”
This time, the six started to shower Ryouma with jeers.
Although Wogan tried to stop that, he couldn’t completely stop it. As Ryouma was gloomily thinking of that, he suddenly thought,
(Now that I think about it, Jeff-san said that if I don’t fight them and show my strength, that I’ll be looked down on.)
Having remembered the words he was told this morning, Ryouma thought a little.
Why won’t I fight them? Well that’s because I’m bad at holding back. It’ll just end up as excessive self-defense.
But this world is different. If one is attacked, as long as it’s for self-defense, then it’s legal even if you kill. This is a world where the fracture Ryouma caused in his school days when he held back wasn’t even worth mentioning. This is a world where you can’t avoid fighting if you want to protect your daily life and your rights.
And also, the opponents right now have a good build, unlike the kids he faced back then. Even if they’re a bunch of thugs, they are adults that have trained how to fight.
What’s more, is that compared to his school days, Ryouma can hold back better now. As he was thinking that, he thought again,
(Oh yeah, I was pretty unsatisfied back in my previous life, huh?)
Although Ryouma had endured the extortion and bullying, it’s not like he didn’t feel anything.
It hurt when he got hit, and when he was spoken ill of, it also hurt. So he also thought of wanting to let loose. But by muttering to himself about excessive self-defense, he was somehow barely able to keep that urge. In other words, he had always wanted to beat those guys up.
Having noticed that, Ryouma heard the jeers of the other men again.
“Coward!!”
“Don’t run, and accept it!”
“A scared adventurer that can’t accept should just retire!!”
At those words, Ryouma said this,
“I understand, I’ll accept it.”
The moment he said that, the jeers stopped. And the onlookers watching all looked at Ryouma.
However, Wogan, wanting to confirm Ryouma’s intentions, asked with a serious face,
“Ryouma, you plan to fight?”
“Yeah, it’s no use even if I kept doing this.”
Like this, Ryouma accepted the duel of the six members of the adventurer group, The Fang of Orbtem.
Ryouma was eating by himself in a corner where the adventurers were gathered after he received his portion of lunch.
As for Jeff-san and the others, they went with the other adventurers to exchange information while eating, but since Ryouma didn’t know what to talk about with other adventurers, he was by himself.
“Even though I can talk normally now, it’s not like my fear of strangers has been cured… oh yeah, now that I think about it I did keep my conversation with other people to a minimum… it was normal for me to wait until someone talked to me…
As Ryouma dropped his head to his own cowardice, a group of men came over and spoke to him.
“Hey.”
“Eh? Ah, yes, is something the matter?”
Although Ryouma felt the men come close to him, he didn’t expect them to actually talk to him, so his response ended up being late.
“You’re wearing a pretty nice armor, huh?”
“My armor? Well, yeah, it was quite expensive.”
“Wow, bastards with money really have it nice.”
“Won’t you give some of that to us?”
At the start, Ryouma responded normally. But with those two comments, Ryouma finally realized that these adventurers were up to no good.
Adventurers would normally make a party of up to six and move as such. In the instance where they have to fight a lot of monsters or a particularly powerful prey, then they would gather more members and become an even bigger group. That kind of group normally disperses as soon as the job is over, but there are some rare instances where adventurers who worked in the same town would work together for a long time.
These people belong to that kind of group. The members of the adventurer group who calls themselves, The Fang of Orbtem, are famous in the Town of Gimuru. Not because they’re strong, but because of their bad deeds.
When they find beginner adventurers and lower level adventurers with plenty of money, they do things like what they’re doing right now, and try to extort money and equipment. There are plenty of beginner adventurers who give up their money after being threatened because of the difference in numbers. And even if they were to fight back, because there’s simply too many, they still end up being stolen from.
Right now, the prey of this group is the lonely adventurer who has no friends beside him, eating food by himself. When they saw this weak looking adventurer, well they just couldn’t help themselves. And so, they planned to do their usual stuff, but…
“Sigh… extortion… I thought there were people who finally came to talk to me, but it turned out to be extortion…”
Muttered Ryouma as he sighed disappointedly.
For Ryouma, being caught up with people like this was an everyday occurrence for him in his student days. Because of that, he didn’t feel anything anymore in situations like this.
Seeing the Ryouma who was acting boldly and sighing, the six faltered a bit. That’s because it’s normal for people to resist. Well, at the very least that’s how it was for the adventurers they’ve extorted from until now.
“That’s cruel, man. This isn’t extortion, we’re just…”
“You said you wanted money right? I won’t give you any, you know? Please work honestly and make money for yourselves.”
Ryouma has always been entangled with people like this during his school days. But amongst those countless times he was being harassed, not once did he give money to them.
There were many who would give their money and live peacefully, but Ryouma didn’t give in to extortion. He could have beaten them up, but because he was forbidden by his father to fight, he lived his days irritating the bullies and being hit.
Because of his bad habit from those days, Ryouma also acted rude in response to the six people. And as one would expect, they were enraged and started trying to threaten Ryouma. The voices of the six people reached even the ears of the surrounding adventurers, catching their attention.
“You have some guts, don’t ya…? Don’t screw with me you shitty brat!! You think I don’t know? The only job you’ve taken till now is a measly cleaning job! A brat like you who doesn’t know how to fight only needs to do what he’s told!”
“Don’t bloody get cocky just cuz you bought some nice armor!! You’re just a little brat who can’t do anything but loiter around in a weird outfit!”
“I’m telling you to just hand over the damned cash! You want to make this difficult?”
“You went against us, so leave your armor and your weapons!”
“It’s better than getting hurt ya know?”
“What, can’t you hear me!?”
“I am able to hear you just fine even without you shouting. Or are you perhaps unable to hear? In any case, I will not be handing any money to you people. Nor will I hand my weapons and armor.”
As he said that, he went back to eating his meal. Seeing that, the six people took out their swords. As expected, Ryouma was alarmed and he steeled himself for battle.
Ryouma generally didn’t fight back in his previous life, but there were exceptions. That exception being when his life was in danger. In cases like that, Ryouma fought back. As for why he would only fight when his life was in danger, that’s because he was bad at holding back.
Even if he was forbidden by his father to fight, he was still given permission to defend himself. Only, the difference between his strength and his opponents were too much. So if Ryouma were to try to fight back, it would only end up as excessive self-defense. The techniques Ryouma had learned from his father were meant to efficiently destroy one’s opponents. And those techniques were ingrained into him by his father’s strict training.
When he fought back during his school days, even the person who suffered light injuries had the hand he was holding a weapon with broken. That was the best Ryouma could do to hold back in his student days.
This also means that in situations where Ryouma’s life isn’t in danger, he won’t fight back.
But this time, his opponents tried to take out their swords. If he were to be hit by those swords, his life would be in danger. Ryouma is the kind of man who wouldn’t hesitate in a situation where his life was in danger.
While Ryouma had his guard up, and as the men tried to take out their swords, someone called out to them.
“What are you guys doing!!?”
That voice came from the man standing in the middle of the onlookers surrounding them from a distance.
The guild master of the Adventurer’s Guild, Wogan.
Wogan glared at the six guys as he walked over to Ryouma.
“You guys, I can still let you off if you’re only arguing, but I won’t approve of you taking your swords out.”
“Why is the guild master…?”
“Withdraw!”
“Even if it’s break time, we’re still in the middle of a job. So stop fighting with your fellow adventurers!”
“Fight? There’s nothin’ like that. We’re just teachin’ this brat a lesson.”
“Cuz this kid don’t have a single inkling of respect towards his senpai adventurer.”
As the two men brazenly said that it was education, Ryouma said this while he was eating.
“You can’t call extorting money, then getting mad when refused and trying to threaten me to get my armor and weapon, ‘education’, you know?”
At those words, four of the men were startled and two of them stared at Ryouma with resentful eyes. Naturally, having something like that said while the guild master was around was bad.
Of course, Wogan responded to those words,
“Certainly, that isn’t education. What’s the meaning of this?”
“Hey, hey. It’d be problematic if you misunderstood us… what we were trying to do was for you…”
“Exactly how is trying to take my money, armor, and weapons, for my sake?”
“You bastard! Stop trying to slander us!!”
“I’ll kill you you little brat!”
The previously calm four, started to shout angrily at the few calm words Ryouma spoke. And then,
“Duel me!”
Ryouma thought he had heard wrong at those sudden words and asked,
“What did you say?”
“I said to duel me you brat!”
“Why?”
“Because you falsely accused us is why!!”
“If you lose you have to give us your money, armor, and weapons!”
“Consider it payment for the class, brat. Because we’ll be teachin you exactly how cruel adventurers are.”
Ryouma opened his eyes, shocked. And then after his shocked had lessened, he said what he thought,
“This is the first time I’ve seen someone ask for a duel.”
Those words that didn’t carry a hint of tension caused the six to become irritated.
“Who cares about something like that!?”
“Are you going to accept?! Accept or not, which is it!?”
“There’s no way I would accept something like that, right? Trying to justify your crimes is meaningless, you know?”
“You scared, you brat?”
“This coward!”
“You’re pathetic!!”
This time, the six started to shower Ryouma with jeers.
Although Wogan tried to stop that, he couldn’t completely stop it. As Ryouma was gloomily thinking of that, he suddenly thought,
(Now that I think about it, Jeff-san said that if I don’t fight them and show my strength, that I’ll be looked down on.)
Having remembered the words he was told this morning, Ryouma thought a little.
Why won’t I fight them? Well that’s because I’m bad at holding back. It’ll just end up as excessive self-defense.
But this world is different. If one is attacked, as long as it’s for self-defense, then it’s legal even if you kill. This is a world where the fracture Ryouma caused in his school days when he held back wasn’t even worth mentioning. This is a world where you can’t avoid fighting if you want to protect your daily life and your rights.
And also, the opponents right now have a good build, unlike the kids he faced back then. Even if they’re a bunch of thugs, they are adults that have trained how to fight.
What’s more, is that compared to his school days, Ryouma can hold back better now. As he was thinking that, he thought again,
(Oh yeah, I was pretty unsatisfied back in my previous life, huh?)
Although Ryouma had endured the extortion and bullying, it’s not like he didn’t feel anything.
It hurt when he got hit, and when he was spoken ill of, it also hurt. So he also thought of wanting to let loose. But by muttering to himself about excessive self-defense, he was somehow barely able to keep that urge. In other words, he had always wanted to beat those guys up.
Having noticed that, Ryouma heard the jeers of the other men again.
“Coward!!”
“Don’t run, and accept it!”
“A scared adventurer that can’t accept should just retire!!”
At those words, Ryouma said this,
“I understand, I’ll accept it.”
The moment he said that, the jeers stopped. And the onlookers watching all looked at Ryouma.
However, Wogan, wanting to confirm Ryouma’s intentions, asked with a serious face,
“Ryouma, you plan to fight?”
“Yeah, it’s no use even if I kept doing this.”
Like this, Ryouma accepted the duel of the six members of the adventurer group, The Fang of Orbtem.
TL Note:
Where’s the action?
The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 22
TL Note:
Special Thanks to Mee for donating!
Special Thanks to Mee for donating!
I couldn’t figure out a western way of making the samurai sound samurai, so I just started attaching ‘de aru’ at the end of Raypin’s sentences.
Volume 1 Chapter 22
Elia seems to have taken her contemplations yesterday seriously and is again in the abandoned mine, training.
Because of that Rheinbach-sama told me to take care of the monster subjugation request put up by the Adventurer’s Guild today. I told them it would be fine if Elia also came with me, but Rheinbach-sama and the Madam were against it.
There’s a huge difference in battle experience and fighting abilities between me and Elia. So, because of that there’s a very high probability that she’ll only end up relying on me a lot.
Well it is true that if she were to ask me for help I wouldn’t really be able to refuse…
In any case this is why I ended up going to the guild and being called into the guild master’s room.
“Ryouma, you came.”
“I came when I heard the Guild Master was looking for me. Is there something the matter?”
“The butler of the duke’s family came a while ago. And after putting up the request I wanted to confirm something. Did you go to the abandoned mine yesterday?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Right, I want you to tell me what kind of magical beasts came out. The big request I mentioned before already came, but it’s really too dangerous without having a good grasp on the monsters beforehand. I also heard from the butler, but the more information the better. So I want to get whatever information I can get before starting the mission.”
“The ones I fought were the cave mantis, the cave bat, and the small mouse. From the looks of things the Ojousama also seemed to have defeated a slime. And then, there’s also the metal slime which the Ojousama found.”
“Alright, looks like this time I can allow members from G Rank up, to take this request. But… to think there was also a metal slime.”
“Yeah, that time we were moving separately but the Ojousama captured it and gave it to me as a present. Like that I was able to tame it.”
“Oh yeah, you liked to collect slimes, huh? From what I’ve heard you actually managed to get over 1000 slimes.”
“That’s right. Right now, I have 728 sticky slimes, 323 poison slimes, 211 acid slimes, 11 cleaner slimes, 3033 scavenger slimes, 2 healer slimes, 1 metal slime, 1 normal slime, which in total makes 4310 slimes.”
“That’s too many.”
“The reason the scavenger slimes ended up this many was because of the previous case, you know? Because of that I ended up making them split so many times in a short period of time and they quickly surpassed 3000. On that point, slimes are able to live largely on water alone, so it’s not a problem.”
“So that’s why. By the way another request to clean the latrine pits came out so… mind taking that?”
“No problem. Still, that is quite fast. It hasn’t even been a few days since the last one.”
“Well the previous request took 5 months before it was accepted. So since there’s no telling when the next request to clean will be accepted, there are plenty of guys who are thinking, “Let’s start putting up the request now!” And they also threatened us by saying that if no one comes for a long time they’ll complain until they die or something. In the end the public office wasn’t able to come to an understanding with the slum and now they’re just ignoring them and not doing their job.”
“Alright, I got it. How many pits do I have to clean today?”
“All 30 pits. Can you do it?’
“Because of the previous case, the slime’s ability to deal with that kind of stuff has greatly increased. And so, if I were to use it for an entire day, I think I should somehow be able to do it…”
“Then I’ll leave everything to you. The townsmen are really annoying.”
“Got it. Ah, can I also take the monster subjugation request?”
“Yeah, there’s no limit on the number of people participating, so there won’t be a problem. You can even process the documents as soon as you get home after the quest, today.”
“Alright, I understand. And then, regarding the monsters in the abandoned mine, can the corpses be sold?”
“Nope. Based on the information we have now, you can’t sell them. The reward for this request is simply for the subjugation of the monsters.”
“Then, if I were to pay up, will I be able to get the corpses?”
“Well to begin with, those are pretty much only garbage. Even if you buy it, what will you do with it?’
“I’ll feed it to my slimes of course. Even though they’re not really eating that much I want to make sure I have supplies while I can.”
“So that’s why. Then in that case leave the handling of the corpses to the guild. I’ll make it so that there’ll be an extra reward for people that bring the corpses back.
To begin with, leaving the corpses there was never really a good idea since other monsters may just end up living there after scrounging for those, so I was already planning to have those gathered. Even if the bonus is dirt cheap, if there’s a bonus then they’ll end up wanting to do it. Also, you’re the one paying for the bonus, alright?
“Of course. In the meantime, will 20 small gold coins be enough?”
“You don’t need 20. Even 10 is plenty.”
“Then I’ll leave you with 10 small gold coins. If that becomes insufficient, I’ll pay it afterwards.”
“Got it. However, are you able to bring that many with you? And also, it’s going to rot, you know?”
“It’s alright. I can use space magic and preserve it with ice. And even if it rots, there are slimes that like that, so it won’t be a waste.”
“Slimes are quite convenient, huh?”
“Yes. Very much.”
After talking with the Guild Master, I left the room and took the request we talked about a while ago from the receptionist.
“Thank you so much for taking this quest again. There really aren’t any people who wants to take this quest, you see?”
“Well, it’s because I have my slimes and magic which make this job convenient for me, but as for others, there probably won’t be anyone who’d want to do this job.”
“Honestly we’d be better off, if they just took the odd jobs instead of pushing themselves and failing a job… Oh by the way, Ryouma-kun, because of the previous job you took your rank rose. From today on you’re an F Rank.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. In order to go from G to F, you need to complete 20 missions of any kind. When you cleaned the latrine pits, there were 30 pits in total. Each pit counted as a mission, and so you were able to fulfill the conditions to go up to F Rank.
In order to go from F to the next rank, E. You need to complete 40 missions of any kind, plus some kind of subjugation request. You went 10 jobs over the 20 jobs required to go from G to F, so I’ll add that towards the completion of your Rank E. If you’re able to finish the cleaning of all of the 30 latrine pits again today, you’ll be able to clear all the conditions for Rank E aside for the subjugation request.”
“Really? Thank you very much. Umm…”
“Oh, that’s right. I haven’t introduced myself have I? It’s Meilin.”
“Thank you very much, Meilin-san. Well then I’ll be on my way.”
I left the guild and then did my best to clean the latrine pits again today. Because of the King Scavenger Slime’s ‘Enlarge’ and ‘Overeat’, I was able to finish all 30 latrine pits in one day. Although the skill level rose, the amount we had to deal with today were quite few…
I then went to report the completion of the request. After a little bit of time, they were able to confirm that I finished the job, and the request was completed.
“Alright, you’re good to go. Take care of it again in the future, ok? And then… Ryouma-kun will also be taking the subjugation request for tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, please let me take it.”
“Then in that case I’ll take care of the papers…… OK. If you come over to the guild by 8 in the morning tomorrow, there’ll be a stagecoach that you can ride for free. If you miss that, you’ll have to either borrow a horse or walk there, but regardless, if you fail to get there by 11, then you’ll have your pay reduced.”
“I understand. Thank you very much.”
After that, I went back to the lodging, prepared for tomorrow, and then went to sleep. It would be nice if a metal slime were to come… if I spot one, I’ll tame it. Definitely.
The Next Day
Because of my appointment today, I was sent off by the four members of the Jamil Household and the guards. I then headed towards to the guild in order to be able to ride the stagecoach. When I got to the guild, there was a huge crowd of adventurers and many stagecoaches lined up.
“That’s quite a crowd, huh?”
Seeing the stagecoaches, I wondered to myself whether to exercise by running while using the neutral magic ‘Strengthening’ since I still had some time, but a voice suddenly called out to me from afar.
“Hey! Ryouma!”
“Eh? Ah, Jeff-san!”
That voice was Jeff-san’s. Looking carefully, I can see Raypin and Shell as well.
“Good morning, Jeff-san, Raypin-san, Shell-kun.”
“Mornin’.”
“Good morning, Ryouma-kun.”
“Good morning – de aru. Ryouma took this quest too?”
“You guys took it as well?”
“It’s ‘cause the old man made us take this request. The request this time ‘round can be taken even by those of the Rank G, but if a strong monster were to come out it will be a huge disaster. So just in case, we’re participating too. Also, it’s not just me and Raypin, Miya and Asagi are coming as well. They’ve already gone ahead though.”
“Still, although there’s been big requests like this before, there’s quite a lot of people this time, huh?”
“That can’t be helped -de aru. The beasts in the mine are something that even Rank G adventurers can handle, and since this is a request given by the feudal lord, the reward for it is also suitable. Besides there’s also the bonus from the corpses, when they’re brought back to the guild.
This is one of the few good opportunities to earn for adventurers of low rank –de aru. And even people who can’t fight can get a reward just by gathering corpses. Like this there’s almost no one who is unable to take part in this mission –de aru.”
“Still, I wonder who’s the guy paying for the bonus and buying the magical beasts. I took a look at the list of the magical beasts, and no matter how you look at it those aren’t the kind of beasts that have any useful parts. These beasts are just small fries, you know?”
“Although it’s good for us, it is quite concerning –de aru.”
“Nah, actually, it’s nothing special. It’ll just be used for feed for the slave monsters.”
“Ryouma-kun, do you know something?”
“It’s because the one buying the corpses is me.”
“So the one buying the corpses was Ryouma? If you’re going to use the corpses as feeds for you slime, then I can understand –de aru. Because… you do have a lot of slimes…”
“What do you normally do for their meal anyway?”
“Depending on what kind of slave monster, it could be quite expensive. And those things look like they’d eat quite a lot.”
“Slimes don’t really eat that much. They can live largely on water alone with a little bit of feed. This time around, I’m planning to use Ice and Space Magic to preserve the corpses, so I can give it to the slimes little by little. Also, I can do this since, if something were to start rotting, then I can simply have the slimes deal with that in one gulp.”
“Well that’s true. Aside from you, there’s no one who can do this.”
“Now that you mention it, where are those slimes –de aru?”
“Today the slimes are resting because I worked them really hard yesterday to clean the latrine pits. And also they’ll just get mistaken by the surrounding people and end up getting killed.”
“Well that’s true –de aru.”
Shell looked at me quizzically,
“Wait a moment, you cleaned the latrine pits again?”
“Well I was asked to by the guild master and also, today, completing this subjugation request will apparently allow me to become an E Rank.”
Hearing that, Jeff-san was shocked,
“That’s fast! It hasn’t even been a week since you registered, right?”
“I cleaned 30 pits for 3 days during the incident, and then yesterday I cleaned another 30. Every single pit, counts for a mission, so all in all that counts towards a total of 60 completed missions.”
“I see…”
While we wear chatting idly, another stagecoach came over. Well, since an empty carriage already came near us, we took the opportunity and rode together.
Like this, we leisurely headed towards the abandoned mine while we chatted. When we got there, we were immediately told to go report to the reception desk they prepared in front of the entrance of the abandoned mine. We did as we were told and were then made to wait there. At 11, all the adventurers were gathered, and the guild master gave us some opening words.
“The people participating today number 264! In order to do this safely, you will all be going in as a 6 man party, one at a time! There will be no scrambling for prey! Those without a party, you were already grouped ahead of time! Come over here to confirm it! And lastly… earn as much as you can!”
Everyone rose their voice at those simple words. Then people gathered, and started entering the tunnel. I also went to check my group and my party ended up being Jeff-san, Miya-san, Wereanna-san, Mizelia-san, and Syria-san. Pretty much everyone was someone I knew. Was the guild master worried about me?
Looking around me, Wereanna-san led 5 other people as they walked towards me.
“Wereanna-san, please take care of me today. The others too, please take care of me.”
“Same here, Ryouma.”
“Take care of me, nya.”
“Take care of me ok?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll properly guide you as your senpai.”
“That’s probably impossible for Mizelia. We already met a while ago, but take care of me as well, ok?”
“Wai–, Jeff! Isn’t that rude to me!?”
“It’s cuz even though you’re good at fighting, you’re careless.”
“What do you mean by that!?”
Seeing the two argue, Wereanna-san couldn’t help but sigh,
“What are you guys doing…? Ryouma, let’s just leave these two. Just to confirm our fighting strength, what weapon do you have with you? And also, the magical beasts we have in this cave are the cave mantis and the small rat, have you ever fought with them?”
“I’ve fought with the cave mantis before. As for my weapon, I normally use my bow but, and I can also fight with my short sword as well as with my fists. And then, I can also fight with my magic.”
“I see… an all-rounder huh? Then in that case Ryouma will be in charge of attacking with magic since no one else can use magic aside from Ryouma in our group.”
“Well it’s not really like I can’t use it nya. It’s just that as beastmen we run out of magic power really quickly nya. So please don’t rely that much on our magic.”
“As for me, my magic power is relatively high but I can’t use anything except for healing magic. Sorry.”
After her, Jeff-san began to say as he puffed his chest up,
“As for me and Mizelia, we suck at all magic except for the neutral magic harden and strengthen!”
“… You just changed the way you phrased it. In the end it’s all the same nya. Well, Ryouma, what attribute do you have nya?”
“All of them, but, I mainly use earth.”
“All Attribute Aptitude huh? That’s quite rare nya.”
“With that, we can fight in a lot more ways. Regarding earth, is the only attack magic you have Earth Needle?”
“Earth Needle and Rock Bullet. As for the other attributes, the ones I can use inside the cave are the ice attribute, Ice arrow. And the electric attribute, Stun Arrow.”
“Then in that case, that’s more than enough. Alright, let’s go!”
And so we started the mission. Only, because the monsters were so weak, we ended up proceeding quite fast.
“These things just can’t fight back.”
Mizelia-san couldn’t help but shake her head,
“What’s the point of asking small rats and slimes to fight back?”
“Besides if a monster that could fight Jeff were to come out it’ll problematic nya. We’ll be fine, but the others who are ranked G and F will be in danger nya.”
“The reason we’re here is to deal with a situation like that.”
Said Syria-san, as Wereanna-san continued to explain,
“However, since we’re already here we can’t show a bad example to the lower ranks. It will be bad if they think that we’re making money even though we’re not doing anything. So let’s just keep killing these guys like this.”
These guys are amazing. They’re all high rank, right? Oh, wait a moment, why is someone like me grouped up with guys like these?
Seeing me deep in thought, Wereanna-san spoke up,
“Something the matter, Ryouma?”
“It’s nothing. I was just wondering why a Rank F like me was grouped up with high ranked adventurers like you guys. I wonder if it’s because the guild master was worried about me, thinking that it’s probably better for me to be with people I know.”
“There’s no such thing. That old man is definitely a busybody, but when it comes to request he’s quite strict. At times like these, he places priority on ability alone.”
Syria-san added,
“The guild master may have thought that it would be problematic if a monster that couldn’t be defeated with anything else except with magic were to come out with only the five of us, so he had you come along with us. I think he must value Ryouma-kun’s abilities quite a bit to make you come with us.”
“Actually, Ryouma-kun, the pace we’ve been going at is actually quite fast, you know? For a normal Rank F Adventurer, the most they would be able to do is to just keep up with us, you know?”
“At the start I thought that we’d have to slow down the pace once Ryouma started to get tired. But since you kept up with us calmly we just kept going like this.”
Said Mizelia-san and Wereanna-san as they tried to encourage me.
Really? I didn’t notice at all.
“Ryouma, your actual ability is definitely not at F.”
“What’s the strongest magical beast you’ve been so far?”
“The strongest I’ve fought isn’t a magical beast. It’s a beast that lives in the Forest of Gana, black bear.”
Hearing that, the five made a face that said, “Knew it.”
“Ryouma-kun, a black bear isn’t something that a normal Rank F can beat nya. In order to safely hunt it, one needs to at least be Rank D and have a party. To beat it alone, one needs to be at Rank C, nya.”
“Is that so?”
Syria-san nodded,
“That’s right. If Ryouma-kun can beat a Black Bear alone, then Ryouma-kun definitely has the ability of at least a Rank C. Did you show that ability to the guild master?”
Now that she mentions, yeah he has.
“When I registered, the proctor of the practical test was the guild master.”
“That must have been it.”
“Yeah, without a doubt. From that time on, he must have been watching you.”
“That’s why you were grouped with us.”
Said Mizelia-san as Jeff-san added,
“Since you have ability, you don’t have to worry about something like rank. With time, you’ll eventually reach the same rank as us.”
“Oh, now that you mention it what are your ranks?”
“Oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned it, nya?”
“We’re all Rank B.”
Responded, Mizelia-san.
“It’s the rank at which an adventurer can finally call himself first class.”
“And also, the ones who came with us when we did the job before, were Shell, who is Rank D, Gordon, who is Rank B, and Asagi and Raypin who are both Rank A.”
We were talking like that as we walked when Wereanna-san suddenly focused her awareness on what’s ahead of us, and began sniffing while she searched for something.
“What’s wrong?”
“From the smell, there’s a colony of bats ahead IT’s not dangerous but because there’s too many of them we won’t be able to beat them all as they’ll end up running away.”
“How troublesome… nya”
“Are there any person over there?”
“I don’t smell any humans. Do you have some kind of plan?”
“Yes, I have a magic that’s convenient for this kind of situation.”
As I mentioned that, I explained the effect of my ‘Sound Bomb’ from yesterday.
Wereanna-san showed me a look of admiration,
“Ho… you could actually do something like that?
Syria-san also nodded,”
“That’s a magic I’ve never heard of before.”
Well yeah… it’s something I made by using the knowledge I got from back in Earth.
“That magic will only knock them out, right? Can you finish the cave bats off before they recover?”
“The number is really a bit much. If you knock them out, killing them off will be quite easy, but as for whether or not we can finish them off in time…”
“Then in that case, couldn’t we receive the help of the people behind us?”
As I said that, the other people also agreed.
Then, Wereanna-san realized something,
“Wait, so you noticed too?”
“It’s because I’ve lived in the forest for 3 years. I’ve become quite sensitive to the presence of others.”
“Is that so? Then can you wait here for a bit?”
Actually, there was a group of six following us from quite a distance behind for a while now. Since they weren’t trying to attack us, we’ve left them alone until now. Also, hearing the conversation of the five with me, I mentioned that they were probably G or E Rank adventurers who were following us from behind to gather the corpses of the monsters to bring it back for money.
Although something like this isn’t prohibited, it’s not something to be praised either. It’s an act that can be considered to be in the ‘gray zone’. The monsters killed by someone normally belong to that person, but what they can’t carry and things that don’t have value are thrown away. Those kind of things being picked up isn’t an issue. But because it might become a source of a problem in the future, there aren’t a lot of people that do it without permission.
When we rested for a bit, the group came closer. Noticing that we had stopped moving, they were thrown into a panic and quickly stopped moving. At that, Wereanna-san called out in a loud voice.
“To the bastards that have been following us! You’ve already been found out! Show yourselves!”
Although the 6 were flustered, before long, they showed themselves. What appeared was a group of four humans and two beasts. Wereanna quickly began to question them.
“Why were you guys following us?”
“We were picking up the monsters that you threw away…”
“So you were just picking up the monsters we killed at your own convenience, huh? Well it’s not like we actually want to lecture you about this.”
At those words the 6 appeared to have been relieved as their expressions became brighter.
“We just want to know why you’re doing this kind of thing.”
When she said that, a young man replied in a panic.
“Y–Yes! Actually, we are still only ranks G and F so… we were having a bit… of a problem with money…”
“At the start we were still fine, but when we bought weapons and armors for ourselves we ran out of money…”
“And then as for me I failed a contract and ended up having to pay the fine and ran out of money…”
“We are also just barely getting by with our lodging fees and so we wanted to find a way to cut down on our expenses, when this request came out. We thought, that if it was this request, then we would be able to get some money for our current lifestyle for a while. The magical beasts are weak so it’s safe, as long as you join you get money, and if you bring monsters with you back you’ll also get money. So we thought that we didn’t have any way to get money aside from here!”
“And then after taking this request, when we got here we saw you guys. And…”
Jeff-san seeing the stagnant reply of the female human adventurer asked,
“And then what?”
“And…”
As the girl failed to reply properly, a male adventurer continued for her.
“We saw you guys take with you that brat. We figured if you’re taking with you into the tunnel a brat like that, then it’d be fine even if we took the corpses of the monsters you threw away. We thought you’d let us off with picking those up since your taking with you a brat that couldn’t be anything else except for a hindrance.”
At that young man’s unpleasant words, the other 5 gave off an unpleasant look. Well I mean yeah, even as a joke I am still a member of this group. You normally wouldn’t say that a member of a group is useless. But as for whether it was because they also thought what he thought, or because they were reflecting on the fact that they gave their approval and started acting on that thought, not a single one of them tried to rebut what the young man had said.
To that young man over there. You said it really arrogantly, but you know… the monsters I fell with my own magic were also included amongst the corpses you’ve picked up, you know?
I’m a little irritated, but it can’t be helped even if I were to mind it.
“You guys should know your…”
Wereanna-san who wasn’t happy about that raised her voice, but I stopped her.
“Its fine, Wereanna-san.”
“Ryouma, it’s better to tell it straight to a person like this, you know?”
“This kind of thinking isn’t something that can be changed by talking. It really can’t be helped that I look weak on the outside.”
I could also fix them up with brute force, but I’m not particularly good at holding back so… this guys will probably end up really hurt if I did that…
“… Got it. But… You guys! If you’re going to do something like that, at least say something! Just doing something like that on you convenience makes you look like a bunch of thieves! Don’t do that!”
“I’m sorry!!”
The 6 people apologized in a big voice. Well, they apologized to everyone aside from me. As expected the other five aren’t exactly reflecting, huh?
After apologizing, the 6 people tried to give us the monster corpses they had collected and then go home, but Syria-san and Mizelia-san stopped them.
“Wait! Although we told you it was wrong to gather the corpses without permission, we don’t think there’s anything wrong with the act itself.”
“If you have problems with money, then its fine. Take it.”
Hearing that, the six’s expression immediately brightened up. They showed their gratitude to everyone else except for me, and said their thanks. Wereanna-san wasn’t happy, but in the end we continued as we planned and Miya-san began to recommend the others to help us.
“Actually, there’s another reason why we called you guys, nya. There’s a colony of bats up ahead, but there’s too many so it’ll take time before we’re able to kill them all, nya. So, won’t you guys also help out? It’ll be fine even if you take all the corpses back with you, nya.”
The six agreed as if it was given. And then, while I confirmed that there were no people around with the magic ‘search’, Miya-san gave a simple explanation.
“First, Ryouma is going to hit them with magic, and then afterwards were going to rush in, nya.”
“That brat will?”
“Won’t that kid’s magic just make the enemy put up their guard?”
Yep, as expected they aren’t reflecting at all.
“If you have any complaints then go home!” roared Wereanna-san.
At that they withdrew, but after getting away a bit, they started whispering things like, “It’s the kid’s guard, huh?” or “I don’t like this” or “It’s for the sake of money so it can’t be helped”. I know, because they can be heard perfectly clear.
Even then though, I ignored them and continued with my preparation. After confirming that there aren’t any people over there, I put up a sound-proof barrier, and finished my preparation.
“I’m ready.”
“Alright, do it Ryouma. And you guys too, get going!”
“I’m going! ‘Sound Bomb’!”
As I invocated the magic, a sound exploded from within the tunnels. However, because of the barrier, we didn’t hear a single sound. So the 6 people from a while ago thought I failed.
“Nothing is happening though?”
“As expected it failed.”
“This is why brats are useless.”
These guys are really shameless. They already completely forgot about what happened a while ago, huh?
“It’s a success. It just happens to be a Wind Attribute Magic, so you guys can’t see it.”
Saying that, I went with Wereanna-san and the rest deep inside. At that, the 6 people made a bunch of excuses while they followed.
However, when they got inside they couldn’t help but look at the floor, dumbfounded. What lay on the floor was a great number of cave bats.
“These have all only been knocked out, so please divide the labor amongst yourselves and quickly dispose of them all.”
As I said that I immediately began. After we finally finished killing off all the cave bats, we left the six members alone in the deepest part of the cave and went out. As we went outside, Wereanna-san said this,
“Ryouma, is it really ok not to have said anything?”
“Yeah, I already showed off my ability with a shot of my magic. If they can’t understand it even with that, then that’s all there is to them.”
“Well that’s also probably true but…”
Jeff-san also couldn’t help but say,
“Having been slandered like that, if you don’t beat them up a bit and show off your strength, you’re going to be made light of, you know?”
“I also thought of beating them up… but I’m quite bad at holding back. I can’t do anything else except protecting myself, running away, or killing. If I were to deal with those six, even if I hold back, they’ll still end up getting hurt too much.”
I didn’t really get to fight a lot with normal people back in my previous world… and ever since I got here the only people I’ve had disagreements with are the bandits.
In elementary, junior high, and high school, if you were to resist someone’s bullying half-baked, then it will just end up getting worse… If I fought seriously I could have easily beaten them up but I went easy on them… Of course when my life is in danger I’ll resist, but even though I held back a lot, after that everyone started looking at me with eyes as if they were looking at a monster.
While I was thinking that Jeff-san said this,
“You don’t have to mind something like that, you know?”
“They also seem like they don’t have any money, so if I beat them up right now, they’ll end up unable to work and that’ll make me feel a bit bad, you know? Right now let’s just say that it’s because they’re desperate to make a living that they’re being a bit rebellious.”
“Rebellious… is that something that someone younger should say? They should be around 15 years old, you know?”
“Ryouma-kun are you really 11 years old?”
“Well, whatever… if that’s what Ryouma-kun has decided then just leave it be, nya. It will be fine as long as you raise your rank quickly, nya.”
Although it’s true that I’m bad at holding back, it’s also because I’m actually an uncle at heart, even though I may look like a kid that is… Anyway, I don’t really feel like scolding them over a minor matter, much less beat them up. I really can’t do something so childish.
Besides everyone had already scolded them. I’ve also shown them my abilities with my magic. Aside from this, all that’s left is to let them reflect on their own.
While we were talking about that, since it’s already time for us to start preparing our meals, we all went back to the entrance of the mine.
The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 21
TL Note: Hi guys, I’ve made the front page more compact now and also added some buttons to the tab, like this it should be much more functional for the mobile users. I also moved the donation button to its own page to avoid cluttering the sidebar.
If you guys could spare some time, I’d like to know what you want to see more in the blog, functionality-wise, to make your experience better. Thanks. By the way, please write it down in the comments so we can all join in on the discussion.
Volume 1 Chapter 21
~ Side Ryouma ~
It’s the biggest store that gives off a high class ambience so far, but Rheinhart-san and the others went to the reception room as if it were normal.
I was a bit out of place, but… in order not to do anything that would inconvenience the others, I stayed meekly by Sebasu-san’s side.
After waiting for a bit, a man with a good build came. I think he might be the owner of the store.
“Well, well. What a pleasant surprise to have the members of the Duke’s Household come. Welcome.”
Rheinhart-san was the one to greet him,
“Serge, it’s been a while.”
“Indeed. It’s unfortunate that I am unable to get many opportunities to meet with the members of the Duke’s Household like this, but I’m happy to see that you are all doing well.
And as for this young lad here, I believe it’s the first time we’ve met. My name is Serge Morgan. I am the president of the Morgan Firm.”
Uh-oh, he also came to greet me.
“I am Ryouma Takebayashi. Because of some twist of fate I’ve come to be in the care of the Jamil Household. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
When I finished introducing myself, he gave me a smile.
He seems to be an acquaintance of Rheinhart-san. I wonder if he’s a good person. Then again, Rheinhart-san won’t introduce me to a weird person, right?
“Well, going straight into business…”
“Yes. I’ve heard you were planning to sell something new again.”
As I was caught up in my thoughts, these 2 suddenly went straight to business. Wait. Again? Rheinhart-san, exactly how many products have you already proposed to be sold?
“Before I show you the product. I need you to promise me that not a word of what I am about to show you will leak out. I know that someone like Serge can be trusted, but just in case.”
“But of course, the information of our business partner is very important to us. If Rheinhart-sama wishes for us not to allow the information to be leaked, then we shall deal with it in a way that will not attract eyes. However, I must say that this is quite unusual coming from Rheinhart-sama. To think that Rheinhart-sama would like to suppress something like that.”
“It’s just for now, and I do have my reasons. I believe that what am I about to show you today will bring us profit on a completely different level than everything so far.”
Will it really become something like that? In my previous world, things like raincoats were a given so… other than intuition, I don’t really know what he’s basing this on.
“Sebasu.”
When Rheinhart-san said that. Sebasu-san opened his item box and took out from it the waterproof cloth, the slime’s thread, and the iron ingot I made. Rheinhart-san took those and showed them to Serge-san.
“This cloth has been treated in a particular way.”
“Would it be alright to take it and examine it?”
“Of course.”
As Serge-san said that, he took the cloth and took a good look at it. He examined it curiously as he rubbed the cloth.
“Oh, it feels good to touch.”
“That cloth isn’t only good for that, you know? That cloth can repel water and prevent it from going through.”
“…Is that true?”
“If you want you can use Identify on it or try it out for real by wrapping it on your hands and dipping it in water. After all, it’s just a sample we brought, so I don’t mind.”
“Then I’ll accept your offer…”
Serge-san called a servant and asked her to prepare a bowl with water in it. In the meantime, while the bowl was being prepared, Serge-san used Identify and intently examined the waterproof cloth. After a while his eyes began to sparkle. When the servant came back with the bowl filled with water, he quickly wrapped the waterproof cloth around his hand, dipped it in the water, and after confirming that it is in fact able to repel water, he said this,
“Rheinhart-sama, this is amazing!”
“Right? Don’t you think that if we were to turn this material into raingear it would sell?”
“It will! It definitely will!”
Wow! He’s really into it!
“What’s surprising isn’t only that. Next, we have this thread.”
“I will examine it.”
This time he took a spool of thread, looked at it, touched it, and then tried pulling it. After he had done all that, he then said,
“Was this thread, perhaps, created by the same material used to create the treatment of the waterproof cloth?”
He noticed! That’s amazing! Even though he didn’t get any hints, he managed to figure something out by touching it?
Hearing Serge-san’s answer, Rheinhart-san smiled as he nodded.
“As expected of Serge. It is exactly as you have thought. The manufacturing process was changed a little bit, but the same thing was used. What do you think? It’s a good thread, right?”
“Certainly, if we were to have workers that deal with high-class clothes work with this, it should sell. This thread is also beautiful, but more than anything it’s durable.”
“We also have an outfit that was made out of that thread and the waterproof cloth from a while ago.”
Having said that, what they brought out was the jumpsuit and the waders that I made… wait, what? I have mine with me, so did they make a new one?
“This is an outfit for working in wet places and places where it is easy to get dirty. The design is a bit eccentric, but function-wise it is excellent.”
“Indeed, this certainly looks like the kind of cloth that a laborer would like to work with. If we can let the people know just how good this is, it’s possible for this to catch on like wild fire.”
“While that something to make this famous is needed, do keep the potential of this product a secret. Also, we have this for last.”
After Rheinhart-san put aside the jumpsuit and the waders, he presented the last item, the iron ingot.
“Would it be alright for me to use Identify?”
“Of course.”
Serge-san got permission and used Identify but afterwards, as if feeling a little disappointed, his shoulders fell and he said this,
“Since this iron is of good quality it can be put up as a product, however, if I may be so bold there is nothing exceptional about this iron.”
“That’s right, then how about you take a look at this iron over here”
Sebasu-sama brought out another iron ingot (ultra-high purity iron) and handed it to Serge-san.
“Is this aluminum? No, the weight is… I will examine this.”
As he said that, he used Identify. The moment he used it, the results that came shocked him. He was able to keep his composure, but his face was sweating a lot. It’s obvious that he has been greatly shaken.
“Rheinhart-sama, this ingot is…”
“Amazing, right? Don’t you think that if we were to start selling this, that it would cause a great commotion?”
“Of course, that’s a given. It wouldn’t even be strange for spies to come from other countries, looking for its source.”
“And that’s exactly why I want to put up the other ingot. The ingot you held a while ago is the same as the ingot you’re holding now. Only, it went through some process and had its purity reduced.”
At those words, Serge-san gave an understanding nod.
“I understand the circumstances, but in that case it will be treated as a normal ingot and will not have any special advantage. Is that ok?”
“It’s fine. What we want is for this ingot to be sold discreetly and legally. You see, this ingot came from the abandoned mine.”
“Discreetly and legally? If a new ore vein was found in the abandoned mine, then wouldn’t it be best to simply take back its status as an abandoned mine and send people over?”
“That’s not possible. Or rather, even if we were to send people there wouldn’t be any meaning since we didn’t find a new vein. Also, the normal method of mining and refining is also not possible.”
“I see. So Rheinhart-sama wants to sell the ingots produced while keeping the method of production of the high purity ingot under wraps, right?”
“Precisely. More specifically, I want it to be exported to a different country. If we were to simply sell it within the country, then it would be necessary to specify exactly where it came from. However, if we were to sell it to a different country, just mentioning what country it came from would be sufficient.”
“Yes. There should be no problems with that.”
Isn’t that alone a problem!? Isn’t that way of doing things too sloppy!?
“Also, along with the ingot I also want to entrust Serge with keeping the identity of the manufacturer a secret. Of course, I can ask this because I trust you.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Although there are 3 products…… the developer responsible for all these is only one.”
Oops, this really isn’t the time to be shocked. I’m being introduced.
“Each and every one of these three products is amazing. A single person had actually…?”
Hearing Serge-san’s words, Rheinhart-san broadly grinned and said this,
“That’s right. The man who developed these things and will produce it from now on is this young boy over here, Ryouma-kun.”
The moment Rheinhart-san said that, Serge-san’s eyes became a dot and alternately looked at Rheinhart-san and I.
“Right now, what did…?”
“The developer responsible for these products is the Ryouma-kun over here. I understand that this is hard to believe, but it’s the truth.”
“Did Takebayashi-sama truly make all of these?”
“Yes, I made these myself.”
“It’s true. Ryouma, despite being at his age, is already an accomplished researcher and an alchemist. Of course, I’d like for you to keep this confidential.”
When Serge-san heard the word ‘alchemist’ his eyes immediately gave off a quizzical look… as expected, alchemists are hard to trust, huh?
“I understand that you find it hard to believe, however, he created that ingot right in front of my eyes. He’s not a crook.”
“… I see, so he created it in front of Rheinhart-sama. If it’s alright, I would also like for Takebayashi-sama to show me that ability.”
Oh? Doubting is doubting but it seems he’s at least willing to see for himself. Well I am someone that the Duke brought along… I’m not confident about the remaining magic power I have, but I have to do it.
“I’ve already used up a sizeable portion of my magic power today, would it be ok even if it’s something small?”
“If that’s the case, then I can prepare some magic power recovery potions from my shop. It was my request after all, so at the very least I could provide something like this.”
Eh? Is it ok to take something like that? Well if that’s the case, then there’s no problem. Ah right, anything is fine, but I need to borrow something to write with or I can’t draw the magic formation.
“Then in that case, could I trouble you to lend me a potion, two sheets of paper, and a pen? I need to draw a magic formation, you see?”
Serge-san called the servant again, and made her bring over the magic recovery potion, the paper, and the pen.
“Would this be alright?”
“Yes, it’s sufficient. Thank you very much.”
I give my thanks, and then write two simple magic formations on the two sheets of paper. Afterwards, I take out a red stone block from my Item Box.
“This is the soil from the abandoned mine which I’ve hardened with Earth Magic. Please confirm it.”
Serge-san immediately used Identify.
“Certainly, I’ve confirmed it.”
“Also, it’s dangerous, so please don’t put your hand inside the magic formation. With that, I will begin.”
Just like that time while I was in the mine, I allow the magic power to flow through into the formation. The formation started to glow, and the stone block had its color changed from to red to black as it was pushed outside the formation. The formation shone again, and this time the stone block that had collapsed was pushed out, and all that was left in the formation was a silver-colored sand.
I place that on top of the other magic formation and make the formation glow. As I did so, the silver-colored sand transformed into a plank-shaped object. I then hand that object over to Serge-san.
“Please confirm it.”
When Serge-san used Identify on the plank he received, his body stiffened. And immediately, in the next moment, he stood up, kneeled on the floor, and with he’s head touching the ground, said this,
“I’m sorry!”
“No, no, no, no, no!! It’s fine even if you don’t do something like that so, please raise your head! I’ve already heard about alchemists being doubted, so in my opinion Morgan’s behavior was actually quite good.”
That’s just too much! Why does this person have to apologize to this extent!?
“I’m grateful for those words. I truly had not thought that Takebayashi-sama would actually be a true alchemist. By any chance, is Takebayashi-sama’s real age actually different from Takebayashi-sama’s outer appearance?”
…huh? …eh, no way… he found out!?
“Excuse me, what are you saying all of the sudden?”
“I’ve heard that a true alchemist was capable of creating immortal medicines and medicines that can bring back one’s youth. Because of all the swindlers, I had thought that it was a lie, but if it’s a real one…”
“No, that’s wrong.”
So that’s what he meant… he shocked me there for a moment…
I show him my status board.
“I can’t create things like immortal medicines or medicines that can bring back one’s youth. There may be a person capable of such things, but at the very least it’s impossible for me. At most what I can do is what you have seen today, which is simply gathering the iron content within the soil and making an ingot out of it.”
“Is that so? My apologies.”
At that, Rheinhart-sama joined in the conversation.
“Well then, now that you’ve confirmed that Ryoma-kun is the real thing, let’s continue with our conversation. Just as you have seen just now, Ryouma possesses great knowledge and technique, and with it he created the ingot and devised the water-proof cloth.
However, if the knowledge that he is an alchemist were to get out, then he would be grouped together with the other alchemists. And even if we were to show proof of his ability, because of his age, people who will detest him, and people who will try to win him over will definitely come.
As such, I would like for Serge-san to purchase the things Ryouma-kun has brought with him at a fair price. Of course, without making it public that the seller was Ryouma-kun.”
“I understand. If it’s something like that, then there’s no problem at all.”
“Ryouma-kun, Serge is a trustworthy merchant. If there’s anything you want to sell, then it would be best for you to come here. Also, if there’s something you want to buy, then buying from here would be best.”
“I understand, thank you very much. Serge-san, please take care of me from now on.”
“Please take care of me as well. I will be eagerly waiting for Ryouma-sama’s visit.”
“Also, Ryouma-kun, you may take as much soil as you want from that abandoned mine. That is, whether it’s for the sake of feeding it to your slime, or making ingots to sell.”
“Is that alright? How about the profit of Rheinhart-san?”
“It’s fine. To begin with, we’ve already decided to treat it as an abandoned mine. Not having profits from it is a given since we, who do not have the ability to use Alchemy, can’t do anything with it. Even without anything changing, you’ll be able to sell ingots to Serge and make a little profit on the side.
And since we already expect to make sufficient profits from the water-proof cloth you made for us, it’ll be fine for you to sell wholesale to Serge’s store or to a branch. Right, Serge?”
“Yes, there won’t be any problems regarding that. Also, if Ryouma-sama could tell me where he lives, I will be able to inform a nearby branch to buy the goods while keeping quiet about Ryouma’s case.”
I’m grateful, but aren’t these people being too nice?
When I mentioned that I lived in the forest, he was shocked. Since I’m still thinking of whether to go back to the forest or not, it was decided that I’ll let him know where I’ll be living after I’ve made up my mind.
For the meantime I’ll be selling to this shop while I’m still in this town. If I decide to go back to the forest, then I’ll end up selling the waterproof cloths to the branch in the Town of Gaunago.
Having been taken care of to this extent, I really don’t know how to show my gratitude… For the meantime I’ll just sell the ingots and the threads whole sale to this shop while I’m around. If I were to exhaust around two days’ worth of magic power, I’d be able to do something like that… Also, as an apology for doubting me, Serge-san gave me a large number of magic power recovery potions.
Well, at any rate, I’m happy that we were able to decide on a store where we would be able to sell safely. Serge-san also told me to come by whenever there was something that I needed. With this much, there’s no such thing as being ripped off.
After that, we were sent off by the female servant, and then we went back to our lodging.
The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 20
Schedule Changes:
Alright guys, so I’m taking summer class for extra credits and it’s starting this week. So with that, a change in schedule. No chapters on T, W, and TH. Don’t get your hopes up but I’ll at least try to get a chapter out on Saturdays. With this we’re down to 4 chapters a week from 5.
Help with these ones please:
まったくあやつは……儂の作った街をより良くしようとしてくれるのは嬉しいが、ああなると暫く使い物にならんわぃ
Volume 1 Chapter 20
Ryouma had lunch with the four members of the Duke’s household.
At the start they were talking about how Elia fought, but midway through Elia suddenly said this.
“By the way Ryouma-san, what were you thinking about a while ago?’
“A while ago? What do you mean?”
“A while ago you were looking around and saying ‘what a waste’, right?”
When Ryouma heard those words, he stiffened.
“Ah, it’s no–nothing special…”
The words that came out were obviously a lie. Since Ryouma wasn’t using his grandparents as an excuse this time, his excuse was very poor, and everyone was able to figure it out.
Elia was the first to point it out.
“How very suspicious, Ryouma-san.”
“You’re not really good at lying.”
Mentioned Rheinbach-sama at the obvious lie.
“Is it something hard to mention?”
“If you have something to say, it’s ok to say it, you know?”
Inquired Rheinhart-san as the madam tried to support Ryouma.
Realizing that his attempt to fool them had failed, he gave up.
“Do you remember the conversation we had before arriving at the Town of Gimuru? That story about the salt mountain.”
Rheinhart-san, suddenly understanding, said.
“Ah… I see. It’s fine, the ones here are just us, Sebasu, Aro-ne, and Lilian. Aro-ne and Lilian won’t spread rumors, and the other men are eating at a different place.”
“I see. Then you know I can use Alchemy, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of it.”
Answered Rheinhart-san as he told Aro-ne and Lilian about Ryouma.
When they heard the word ‘Alchemy’ they were shocked, but did not give any sign of contempt. Ryouma gave a sigh of relief and then began talking.
“This mine will become an abandoned mine, right?” Rheinbach-sama nodded
“That’s right. The papers have already been processed.”
“So what about it?”
“I think I can still produce some iron from this mine if I use Alchemy.”
At those words, this time everyone else aside from Ryouma stiffened.
Rheinbach-sama couldn’t help but ask
“Is that really true?”
“Yes. I once talked about how I managed to remove the poison from the salt in the salt mountain in the Forest of Gana, right?”
“Yes, I’ve heard of it.”
“In the same way I removed the poison from the salt, this time I can gather the soil and produce iron. That red soil is the color of rust. Say, if one were to leave his sword wet, over time it would get rusty, right?”
“Of course.”
“In the same way the soil that has iron content in it will have the same color. That’s why there is definitely iron in that soil. I believe if I use Alchemy’s Separation on that soil once or twice, then I’ll be able to extract a lump of iron. Only thing is, if an abandoned mine were to suddenly start producing iron again, it would cause a fuss, right? So since it’s not possible to get it by digging as you would normally, and since there’s a problem with using Alchemy, I thought, ‘What a waste…’.”
“That’s true but… Ryouma-kun, if you think you can do it, why don’t you try doing it? I actually have a way to sell something like that legally without catching attention.”
“Alright.”
Replied Ryouma cheerfully. After having their meal, the other guards went on their own ways to dispatch the monsters. With them gone, Ryouma and the rest began their operation. Ryouma prepared the magic formation that is essential to Alchemy by drawing a square inside a circle. He then put the reddish soil into a stone container he made using Earth Magic and then placed it on top of the magic formation.
“Then, I’ll start. It’s dangerous, so please do not go inside the magic formation.”
As Ryouma said that he allowed his magic power to flow into the magic formation causing it to illuminate. From inside the shining magic formation, the soil and the stone vessel was being pushed out. When the light had disappeared, all that was left inside the formation was the silver colored sand of iron.
After Ryouma had confirmed that, he quickly drew a pentagram within a circle. He placed the silver colored sand of iron on that and allowed magic to flow into the magic formation.
This is the magic formation when using Alchemy’s ‘Synthesis’. The practitioner needs to know the original material and the material it will synthesize into. From this, the practitioner will be able to make the material on the magic formation synthesize turning it into one lump, making it possible to create an alloy from several metals.
With this, Ryouma turned the iron content he brought out into an iron ingot. Confirming that, he used ‘Identify’. And then this came out:
Iron Ingot
It is an iron ingot with 100% purity.
Having understood that he had succeeded, Ryouma handed the ingot to Rheinhart-san and had him use ‘Identify’ on it.
“You really were able to do it……………………I’m sorry, Ryouma-kun.”
Rheinhart was shocked that Ryouma was actually able to produce iron. While he was dumfounded for a while, he quickly put himself together and bowed his head deeply. At that sudden behavior, Ryouma was at a lost.
“Eh!? Why all of the sudden!? Please raise your head!”
At those words Rheinhart raised his head but he spoke with a face that looked very apologetic.
“Although I didn’t think you’d swindle others, but because there are a lot of people who say they can make gold and swindle others, I thought for sure you wouldn’t be able to do it. I’m sorry for not having been able to trust you.”
When Ryouma finally understood what was bothering Rheinhart, he immediately told him that he doesn’t mind, however, Rheinhart did not look satisfied. Rheinhart kept apologizing, and Ryouma kept forgiving, their conversation kept moving parallel to each other until Elize and Rheinbach finally interfered. When they finished talking, Sebasu spoke up.
“Rheinhart-sama, about this iron…”
“Right! We need to prepare to sell these iron ingots…”
“Unfortunately, we cannot sell these things.”
“What? Why is it no good?”
“This thing is certainly iron and Ryouma-sama’s ability to perform Alchemy is truly awe-inspiring, however, there is just one problem, the purity is too high.”
Having been told that, Rheinhart, Elize, and Rheinbach used ‘Identify’ again. Afterwards, they each breathe out a defeated sigh. Seeing those three’s expressions, Ryouma couldn’t help but ask what was wrong.
Apparently in this world, the highest purity that can be sold has 10% impurity. And the inferior ones have greater than 40%. If there happened to be an iron with 0% impurity, meaning a pure iron, there would be a huge commotion over it and there would be many people who would try to find out the manufacturing method.
Receiving that explanation, Ryouma realized what the problem was. At the same time, he thought of a way to fix it.
Ryouma quickly drew a hexagram within a circle, and put on top of it the ingot and the soil he got when he extracted the iron. And then he allowed his magic power to flow into the formation.
The hexagram formation is for using Alchemy’s ‘Mixing’. Using this, one will be able to mix several materials without bias. Because of this, Ryouma was able to lower the purity of the ingot by mixing it with the original material. As a result its color changed to black. When he used identify on it this came out,
Iron Ingot
An iron ingot with 10% impurity
When he gave it to Rheinhart-san, they couldn’t help but be shocked. At the same time, though, they showed great joy since with this, it can now be sold.
After that, because Rheinhart and Sebasu-san were figuring out who to sell the iron to, the afternoon monster hunt party ended up becoming Ryouma, Elia, Elize and Rheinbach.
“Good grief, I’m happy that guy is trying to improve the town I made but when he’s like that, he becomes impossible to deal with.”
Grumbled, Rheinbach.
“Really, father…”
The madam looked at Rheinhart and asked
“I’m troubled that you’re neglecting Ryouma and Elia. You don’t think so?”
“I am also a part of the cause… and also isn’t it better that Rheinhart-san is doing his work rather than being lazy.”
Because Ryouma was also the same kind of person who would lose track of everything around him when caught up in his work, it wasn’t actually possible for him to scold Rheinhart.
The madam helplessly said、
“Well that’s true… ah, we arrived.”
Ryouma and Elia arrived in front of the entrance to another tunnel.
“Well then, from here on you guys decide on how to move. I and father-in-law will only go along with you guys from here on. We’ll save you when it gets dangerous, but aside from that we won’t do anything at all.”
“Since this is to help Elia gain some experience and since Ryouma-kun already has some experience, Ryouma will also have to step back. If she needs help, at most just talk to her.”
Suddenly having a problem pushed onto you, a normal person would be troubled. Elia, however, was someone who had always received their training. And so this is how she replied,
“I understand, I’ll do my best.”
From the looks of things, it would appear she’s used to suddenly being given a problem.
“It’s dark and I can’t see very well.”
Elia was different compared to Ryouma who had always hunted during the night in the forest.
“Ryouma-san, what do you do when hunting during the night?”
“If you do it for a long time you’ll get used to it but… if it’s ok for us to be seen, then it’s fine to use the light magic, ‘light’ as many times as you want. If you don’t want to be found out then using the neutral magic, ‘Search’ would be best. There’s still a chance of being discovered through the perception of magic but it’s still better than ‘Light’.”
“I can’t use Search. Can Ryouma-san use Search?”
“I can use it.”
“How do I use it? I know the theory, but I don’t actually know how to apply it.”
Hearing that, Ryouma thought for a while. Then he created a container made out of stone with earth magic and filled it up with water using water magic.
“Please look at this.”
“What will you do with this?”
Ryouma showed the vessel to Elia, and then dropped a rock in the middle of it causing waves to rise within the small vessel.
“The center of the rock is one’s self. The waves are the flow of magic power. Imagine yourself to be at the center and allow your magic power to become like these waves of water. Then allow it to spread to your surroundings where you think the monster may be.”
Ryouma then, continued to drop small rocks on the vessel while sinking the waves with water magic. After a while, he dropped a rock one more time, but this time the wave could clearly be seen stopping at some point when it hit a rock.
“In a similar sense, this is how a monster could interrupt the wave you are releasing, and is the reaction that you will get when using Search if there is a person or a monster in the area.”
“I get it. That explanation was really easy to understand. Well then, ‘Search’ !”
Elia immediately invocated the magic, ‘Search’. At that instant, magic power flowed into the surroundings with Elia as its center.
“There are a lot of monsters just a little bit ahead of us!”
“Looks like it worked, unfortunately though, you put too much magic power. Using a lot is a waste, and also if there were a magician on their side, we’d be found out.”
“Is that so? Looks like I need to practice.”
“Search goes alongside with the duty of the vanguard, so I’ll do it. It will be better for Elia to focus on magic.”
“I understand. Thank you, Ryouma-san.”
Ryouma nodded and invocated ‘Search’. And as Elia mentioned, there were a lot of monsters ahead.
“If we go this way, the road will get wider and there’s an empty cave ahead. I am getting a lot of response from the ceiling of that place. It looks like there are plenty of monsters filling the ceiling, they’re probably cave bats.”
Rheinbach-san nodded,
“If they’re in the ceiling, then they’re probably cave bats.”
The Madam followed,
“If there’s so much of them that they’re filling up the ceiling then… Elia, will you be alright?”
“They’re small and on top of that they’re fast, so one or two would be good practice, but…”
Said Rheinbach-sama.
“Then in that case, do you mind if I try out an experiment?’
Hearing that, the three couldn’t help but ask at the same time,
“Experiment?”
“Yes. If it goes well I may be able to round up the bats.”
Ryouma then explained while he confirmed the bat’s ecology.
At that, he found out that the Cave Bat’s ecology is not that different from the bats of Earth. Knowing that, Ryouma proposed the use of sound. He figured, if they were to use a magic that can create a powerful sound, it should be able to knock the cave bats out.
Actually, while he was living in the forest, Ryouma was able to create several sound magic.
A magic that silences the sound surrounding the target, ‘Silent’. A magic that does the opposite and makes the sound louder, ‘Big Voice’. A magic that allows sound to reach far, ‘Whisper’. While practicing Big Sound, Ryouma was accidently able to produce a sound explosion capable of destroying the ear drums, which he called ‘Stun Sound’ and by combining it with ‘Whisper’ he was able to create a remote non-lethal magic called ‘Sound Bomb.
Sound Bomb is extremely powerful but it has the downside of making a big noise. Using this magic, it was possible to destroy the ear drums of the Black Bear in one shot, causing it to faint. Ryouma figured that if this was used against the bats it would have some effect.
Only, there were currently three problems. The first is whether or not the noise it produces will cause the tunnel to collapse or not, the second is whether there are people around or not and the last one is what will happen if it fails to dispose of the bats.
Ryouma asked Rheinbach about the first question and as it turns out, since the tunnel has been strengthened by earth magic, there’s nothing to worry about regarding the cave collapsing. As for the second problem, it’s possible to figure out if there are any people around by just using ‘Search’ and then in the instance that the ‘Sound Bomb’ fails to dispose of the bats, then Ryouma will deal with it using the slimes.
Ryouma brought out the Sticky Slime from the Dimension Home and using ‘Enlarge’ had it block the tunnel, giving it the order to act as some kind of net. The slime, following that order, used the ‘Sticky Liquid’ to create a net. Ryouma then put up a sound proofing barrier preventing the sound from the outside from going inside.
“ ‘Search’ ……………… Good, there’s no one there. The preparations have been completed.”
Rheinbach nodded
“We’re ready as well, you can go anytime you want.”
“Then in that case, ‘Sound Bomb’ “
At that instance, a tremendous sound erupted like an explosion from outside the barrier, echoing within the tunnels.
The cave bats in the ceiling of the tunnel were unable to run and most of them fainted. The ones that were able to run away were only 10, but those cave bats were unable to fly steadily and ended up hitting against the walls. There were also some bats that went over to Ryouma’s side, but they got caught in the net and was unable to move.
“Looks like a success. Let’s go.”
Removing the barrier and the slime’s net, the four headed over to where the bats were. When they got there, a significant number of cave bats could be seeing lying on the floor.
Seeing that, Rheinbach and the Madam couldn’t help but praise,
“This is amazing.”
“It’s true that cave bats aren’t particularly dangerous, but they’re kind of hard to kill. To think that a child would be able to deal with them so easily, I don’t think something like this has happened before.”
“Amazing, Ryouma-san!”
“The experiment seemed to have ended well. Ah… these, is it ok if I feed these to my slimes?”
“Well cave bats don’t really sell that well so…”
Hearing that, Ryouma made the sticky slime split and had the 364 sticky slimes eat all of the cave bats. After that, Ryouma felt that the sticky slimes have become able to split again, so he decided to have them split once he got back home to the lodging.
After that, Ryouma and his slime continued to support Elia while she hunted the small rats for the next hour.
Afterwards, the four people left the tunnel. After they had rested, they were planning to go to the next dungeon, but at that moment, Rheinhart came over. And then he said,
“Ryouma-kun, can you make a few more samples of the iron we are going to sell?”
And so, because of that, Ryouma had to separate from the others to make more ingots.
He finished the ingots fairly quickly, but the three had already gone into the tunnel. Being bored, Ryouma thought of entering a tunnel but instead started making the slimes split.
However that also ended in an hour and without anything to do, Ryouma took out the slimes from the Dimension Home and passed the time by training.
Ryouma used Earth Magic to make a rod out of stone and used it along with his fists to hit the slimes. In response, the slimes either dodged that or defended.
Ryouma did something like this from time to time while in the forest to train the slimes. The slimes may be weak monsters but unless one hits the nucleus inside their body or hits the soft semi-liquid body of theirs, they can’t die.
The slime can make the nucleus inside its body go anywhere. So when Ryouma is fighting the slimes, the slimes move the nucleus to the opposite direction to protect it and escape from the attack with its semi-liquid body. In the instance where it is kicked to the ground, the slimes can do the same thing to negate the damage.
Right after taming it wasn’t possible, but after being together for a long time, Ryouma began to see the slimes making skillful movement and so he began the training.
Ryouma focused on teaching the slimes the foundation of battle techniques on dodging and defending. Like going under the bosom of the opponent coming at you to cut you down to dodge, and entwining yourself around the hand holding the sword that has come near you or making use of the semi-liquid body and using the enemy’s weapon to parry.
Moreover, while slimes are normally unable to fight except by ramming their body against their opponents, Ryouma’s slimes are able to extend tentacles and use it like some sort of whip. There are also some that can counter attack with weapons as if they were using their hands. Nowadays there are slimes that can extend their bodies and use spears and pseudo-rod techniques.
Also, while Ryouma was practicing with the slimes, Lilian was watching. Lilian couldn’t’ believe her eyes when she saw the slimes executing movements that slimes normally couldn’t, however, Ryouma didn’t notice this.
After this, Lilian went to Sebasu and asked, “Are Slimes able to use battle techniques?” Because of that Sebasu began to worry about her health. Fortunately though, she was able to solve the misunderstanding when she mentioned that she was talking about Ryouma’s slimes. However, being unable to believe that slimes could use battle techniques, Sebasu said, “Ryouma-sama’s slimes are able to perform skillful movements so maybe that’s what you saw?” Hearing that, Lilian was convinced and she forgot about the slimes.
“Ryouma-san!”
“Elia, you’re done with your training?”
“Yes, the training for today has ended. But more than that, I have a present for Ryouma san.”
“Present?”
“Fufufu… If it’s Ryouma, I wonder if you’ll like it?”
As Elia and Elize said that, Rheinbach came with a box made out of a stone. Looks like it was made with earth magic.
“Inside this is a magical beast, it’s weak but you should still be careful.”
Hearing that it’s a magical beast, Ryouma opened the lid while being cautious. In the next moment, Ryouma was captivated when he saw what was inside.
“Slime?”
What was inside was a dark grey Slime. It was obviously not a normal slime, but it was a kind of slime Ryouma had never seen.
“It’s a high class slime called Metal Slime. We saw it by chance so we caught it.”
“Thank you very much! I’m really happy! To have another slime, and what’s more, a new kind…”
Ryouma gave his thanks to the other three and then began to observe the slime. The three were happy that Ryouma happily received it but when he started observing, they couldn’t help but give a wry smile. At that, Rheinbach reminded Ryouma,
“Even if it’s a slime it’s still a magical beast so it’ll be better for you to make a contract with it now.”
As if he head just remembered it when Rheinbach mentioned it, Ryouma enacted the Slave Monster Contract. After that, until it was time to go back, Ryouma made some iron out of the red soil and gave it to the slime, wondering whether or not it would eat it.
The result was that the metal slime did in fact eat the lump of iron but needed time. So instead he used Alchemy to turn the ingot into its previous sand like state and the slime was able to eat it quickly.
Ryouma hypothesized that the slime had most likely eaten the soil with metal content, and as a result it ended up evolving like that.
And so he thought of using the sand-like iron that the metal slime liked to eat as lure. And then made a contract with the lured slime. He continued to feed the slime iron for the sake of ascertaining of whether or not the evolution condition is to feed it metal. If it does evolve, then that will prove that the hypothesis is correct.
After that, he was told that they were about to leave and so Ryouma got permission from Rheinhart to get a huge amount of red soil as feed for the slime, and put it in a corner in his Dimension Home.
He used ‘Create Block’ on the red soil and had the slimes transport it. Like this he was able to secure a huge number of red soil. At this point, Ryouma began to feel that he’s starting to reach the limit of his magic power. A sensation that he hasn’t felt in a while.
Ryouma rode the carriage in that condition and was heading for the town but while he was there, Rheinhart told him this,
“I know you’re tired and I’m sorry about this, but can you go with me for a while? I want to go to the place of the person who will work with us to sell the iron, the slime thread, and the water proof cloth that you made. He’s a trustworthy person, so I thought of introducing Ryouma-kun as well.”
Since Ryouma-kun was only a little tired, he felt that there was nothing wrong with going, and he agreed.
After that, 1 hour had passed and they finally reached the town. They then stopped in front of a huge shop.
“Well, well. What a pleasant surprise to have the members of the Duke’s Household come. Welcome.”
When they entered the store, they immediately went deep inside the shop and entered a big room. When they got there, another man entered as well. That man couldn’t really be called fat, but he certainly had a stout figure.
When he came, Rheinhart greeted him,
“Serge, it’s been a while.”
“Yes. It’s unfortunate that I am unable to get many opportunities to meet with the members of the Duke’s Household like this. But I’m happy to see that you are all doing well.
And as for this young lad here, I believe it’s the first time we’ve met. My name is Serge Morgan. I am the president of the Morgan Firm.”
“I am Ryouma Takebayashi. Because of some twist of fate I’ve come to be in the care of the Jamil Household. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Although Serge was surprised at Ryouma’s manner of speech, he showed a smile. And in response Ryouma also smiled. And although this man’s manner of speech was similar to Matthew of the Tamer Guild, Ryouma wasn’t able to feel the sort of ill will he felt from Matthew.
Like this their greetings ended, and they went onto the main topic.
The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 19
TL Note: Special Thanks to Anonymous for donating!
First off, I fixed the layout a bit. I hope you guys like the pink 😉 the menu buttons, and the chat. haha. Also added previous and next chapter links on each chapter if you’ve noticed.
And now a bit of explanation on how the author actually names the critters in this story. Not all of them but some, ok? The author pretty much just names the critter with their English version instead of the Japanese names and so there’s one line in this chapter which I changed up. Original version just pretty much says oh it’s a rat (English) from the word rat (Japanese). That. Yeah…
If anyone can help me with a direct translation of this line… I’m not really good with that form:
ラインハルトさんと奥様は2人で、ラインバッハ様に至っては1人で別の坑道に入るという
Volume 1 Chapter 19
Today we went to the mine three hours away on carriage. Right now we’re standing in front of the entrance to a tunnel. We had guards come with us but aside from Jamil and the rest, everyone else went to a different tunnel to hunt magical beasts.
“Let’s do our best! Ryouma-san!”
Elia is really fired up today. Normally she wears a simple but high class ladylike dress, but today she’s wearing an easy to move in shirt and a pair of pants. And on top of that she’s wearing an armor made out of the hide of a magical beast.
The ones who entered the tunnel in front of me were Elia, Jill-san, Camil-san, Zeff-san, Hyuzu-san, and myself.
Rheinhart-san, the Madam, and Rheinbach-sama also came to the mine but Rheinhart-san and madam were apparently going together, and Rheinbach-sama was apparently somehow going to a different tunnel by himself.
When I asked Jill-san and the others if it’s ok, they said this
“Don’t worry, in the past they travelled together as adventurers. And what’s more is that Rheinbach-sama even managed to get an achievement in a skirmish with a neighboring country in the past. So you don’t have to worry as they won’t even get so much as a scratch from something like the likes of magical beasts that just live in a nearby mine.”
Rheinhart-san laughed and said
“The truth is we don’t really need guards. We, three, like to go as we please, and if we go out with guards we’ll just get attention, so just having Sebasu-san go with us is more than enough. Haven’t you noticed we really didn’t have guards follow us in the town?”
“The Jamil Household is different from the other nobles and dislikes pompous things. They’ll even hire people like me who isn’t well mannered as long as they have the skill. And they’ll even talk to people like me normally as long as it isn’t in public or in front of the other nobles.”
Well that’s true. These three do look like skilled experts at sword and magic.
As I listened to that story I suddenly noticed that the Madam was waving at me and Elia from the entrance of a separated nearby tunnel. Elia and I waved back, at which the madam waved an even bigger one, one more time, and then she entered the tunnel with Rheinhart-san.
After sending the two off to a different tunnel, we also entered a tunnel. The one leading us is Zeff-san, followed by Jill-san and Hyuzu-san. Who are then followed by me and Elia, and then at the rear most part was Camil-san.
Before going, Zeff-san looked at us and warned us
“Ojousama, and you little boy, ‘tis a lil’ dark here so please watch your steps. People used ‘ta work in this tunnel so there ain’t any here, but there may be some traps in ‘tha dungeon. Finding those little buggers is the job of a scout like me. We may be here for lil’ bit of trainin’ but I’d like ‘ta remind ya not ‘ta go out ahead of us.”
“Yes!”
“Understood.”
After walking for a while we saw something ahead of us and Zeff-san stopped. He also made us stop, and after taking a good look at it…
“Bug?”
For some reason there was a lone bug there that looked like a praying mantis, only, it was around my size.
“You see ‘tha bugger over there little boy? Hehe, just as I’d expect from you, that thing’ over there is a Cave Mantis. ‘Tis a bug class magical beast, it uses its scythe-like hands ‘ta dig holes and lives at ‘ta caves and tunnels it finds.”
“Che! This is gonna be a bit troublesome…”
Hearing that, I couldn’t help but ask
“Is it strong?”
“It’s not strong. The scythes aren’t sharp and its carapace is soft, so when miners find these little critters they usually get subjugated easily.
The problem is that these things reproduce fast, and from time to time a higher class race, Blade Mantis, will come. What makes them doubly annoying is that those guys look like the Cave Mantis, so it’s hard to distinguish between the two.”
“Because the scythe of the Blade Mantis is sharper than the Cave Mantis’ you can’t be careless when dealing with a Cave Mantis. If it turns out to actually be a Blade Mantis, you’ll get hurt. Be careful.”
Elia nodded at those words and said
“Ok.”
“How do we distinguish them?”
“You see… ‘tha blade mantis is just a tiny weeny little ‘bit bigger. But ‘tha thing is that it’s really not that big of a difference so you need that ‘lil somethin we call experience to distinguish them buggers. That thing over there is a Cave Mantis. I’ll lure the bugger, and help you ‘lil ones get a closer look, ok?”
After Zeff-san said that, he went near the Cave Mantis by himself until he got its attention, and then he came back. After he reached a place where Elia and I could see clearly, he received the attack of the Cave Mantis with a shield.
“That is a Cave Mantis. Its scythe is a little fast, so please be careful when dealing with it.”
“Ojou, take it down with your magic while Zeff is receiving its blows. And do take care not to hit Zeff.”
“Don’t use Fire Magic, ok? Since here in the cave there’s no place for the smoke to go.”
“I understand.”
“Anytime is fine, Ojousama!”
“Then… ‘Ice Arrow’! tch! ‘Ice Arrow’!”
The cave mantis dodged the first shot, but Elia fired a second shot almost immediately, and was able to take it down.
“The speed of invocation is a pass but please try to aim better.”
“I understand.”
After that we walked for around 2 minutes until we found another Cave Mantis again. This time, there were 4.
“What will we do? A while ago Ojou did one, so I thought Ryouma would do this one but… 4 all of the sudden may be a bit too much?”
When I heard that I replied to him that I’ll try.
“Be careful.”
I nodded at those words, took out two of my short swords, and invocated the neutral magic, ‘Harden’.
I then ran up to the cave mantis. Noticing, me it turned towards me and then raised its scythe. Before the cave mantis brought its scythe down I took down the right foreleg supporting its body with a kick from my left leg and broke it. The cave mantis lost its balance and fell. I bring my right leg up and put my strength into it as I stomp against the head of the cave mantis, crushing it, then almost immediately turning to face the other two mantis that have already started rushing towards me.
Focusing on the timing of the second bugs’ scythes, raising up and striking down. I rotate my body 80 degrees counterclockwise at the perfect timing, just barely dodging the scythe. Continuing the movement of that rotation, I swing the short sword in my right hand, cutting its joint as the short sword in my left hand flashes by, decapitating the bug.
At that moment, the third cave mantis came at me from behind. I quickly change my backhand grip to a forehand grip as I rotate my body counterclockwise. I receive its blow with my right sword and parry it, as I do so the sword in my left hand mercilessly flashes by as it severs its head from its body.
Immediately right after, the fourth cave mantis came sweeping with its left scythe. As I dodge the approaching scythe, I receive it with my right sword and then I cut off its joint with my left. The cave mantis didn’t back off and came sweeping with its right scythe, this time, I block it with my left and then sever its joint with my right sword. Having lost both its scythes, the mantis was left with no weapons to fight with and had its head lopped off by me.
Having ended the battle, I headed back to where Elia and the rest were.
“Good job, looks like you don’t have any problems even with close combat. Ojou, bug type magical beasts are tough so please don’t be careless until you’re able to separate its head or crush it like Ryouma did, ok?”
“I understand.”
“It’s good that you took extra measures and even used the hardening magic. With that, even if you were hit there would’ve been no problems.”
Elia gave me a glance of admiration and said
“As expected of Ryouma-san.”
Really, it’s because I’ve already gotten used to the green caterpillars back in the Forest of Gauna. Those things were weak, but they were a kind of magical beast that had high vitality.
We started walking again and after 30 minutes of walking, the only monsters to come out were the cave mantises. So, rather than training, it turned out to be a dull extermination job. As we kept doing that, we eventually reached the deepest part of the tunnel.
“Looks like this is the end.”
“It was quite long but it was a straight road, so I guess this is the end?”
“There are no more roads left so there should be no more monsters.”
“So are we ending here?”
“This place is basically a trench so although it’s long there aren’t any complicated roads. Doesn’t seem like we have any other choice other than to go back.”
“It’s unfortunate though, that only one kind of monster came out. I thought a bit more of a variety would come out but…”
“The cave bats and the small mice were most likely eaten by the cave mantises.”
So basically a bunch of mice and bats, huh?
(TL Note: this is the line I was talking about)
“There’s no point in talking about something like that here. Let’s go back.”
With everyone agreeing with Hyuzu-san, we went out the tunnel. While we went out the tunnel, I took my slimes out of the Dimension Home and had them eat the cave mantises on the ground. When we got out, Rheinhart-san and the Madam were waiting for us.
The madam was the first to greet us.
“Welcome home~”
“How was it?”
Elia, brimming with pride, puffed out her chest and said
“Mother, father, I managed, to take down over 10 cave mantises!”
“That’s pretty good for a first battle.”
“But from midway onwards, Ryouma took the lead and took down over 20!”
Said Elia, looking like she was brimming with even more pride now.
“Did you get protected by Ryouma-kun?”
“Were there that many cave mantises there?”
Asked the Madam and Rheinhart-san respectively.
“Well from the looks of things, it would seem that the cave we entered was a nest of cave mantises. There wasn’t a single magical beast aside from the cave mantises.”
“Then in that case let’s try entering a different tunnel this afternoon.”
“Before that, though, let’s have some meal since it’s about time the others came back too.”
Being told that, I put my slimes back into the Dimension Home, and was led to an open place where everyone gathered and was having their meal.
That place was the surface of the mine from where the surrounding area could be seen well. The surface of the mine had an unusual pattern of black and reddish brown but there were some areas where heaps of reddish clay could be seen piled up. When I tried asking about it, it turned out to be the assigned area where they would throw away all the dirt they’ve excavated.
“What a waste…”
Although this mine has had a mining rate of mostly zero. That only means that there are no ores right? But it doesn’t mean that the soil doesn’t have iron content. Red soil, that’s the color of rust, right? Since it’s like that, if I were to use Alchemy I would probably be able to create some iron but… since this is already an abandoned mine even if it were to produce a lot of iron it would still be of low quality… and also it seems that Alchemy has a bad reputation so…